Superconductor Pb$_{10-x}$Cu$_x$(PO$_4$)$_6$O showing levitation at room temperature and atmospheric pressure and mechanism

Abstract

A material called LK-99, a modified-lead apatite crystal structure with the composition Pb$_{10-x}$Cu$_x$(PO$_4$)$_6$O ($0.9<x<1.1$), has been synthesized using the solid-state method. The material exhibits the Ohmic metal characteristic of Pb(6s1) above its superconducting critical temperature, $T_c$, and the levitation phenomenon as Meissner effect of a superconductor at room temperature and atmospheric pressure below $T_c$. A LK-99 sample shows $T_c$ above 126.85$^\circ$C (400 K). We analyze that the possibility of room-temperature superconductivity in this material is attributed to two factors: the first being the volume contraction resulting from an insulator-metal transition achieved by substituting Pb with Cu, and the second being on-site repulsive Coulomb interaction enhanced by the structural deformation in the one-dimensional(D) chain (Cu$^{2+}$-O$_{1/2}$-Cu$^{2+}$ along the c-axis) structure owing to superconducting condensation at $T_c$. The mechanism of the room-temperature $T_c$ is discussed by 1-D BR-BCS theory.