Local magnetic measurements of permanent current paths in a natural graphite crystal

Abstract

A recently reported transition in the electrical resistance of different natural graphite samples suggests the existence of superconductivity at room temperature. To check whether dissipationless electrical currents are responsible for the trapped magnetic flux inferred from electrical resistance measurements, we localized them using magnetic force microscopy on a natural graphite sample in remanent state after applying a magnetic field. The obtained evidence indicates that at room temperature a permanent current flows at the border of the trapped flux region. The current path vanishes at the same transition temperature $T_c \simeq 370~$K as the one obtained from electrical resistance measurements on the same sample. The overall results support the existence of room-temperature superconductivity at certain regions in the graphite structure and show that the used method is suitable to localize the superconducting regions.