The resistive transition and Meissner effect in carbon nanotubes: Evidence for quasi-one-dimensional superconductivity above room temperature

Abstract

It is well known that copper-based perovskite oxides rightly enjoy consensus as high-temperature superconductors on the basis of two signatures: the resistive transition and the Meissner effect. We show that the resistive transitions in carbon nanotubes agree quantitatively with the Langer-Ambegaokar-McCumber-Halperin (LAMH) theory for quasi-1D superconductors although the superconducting transition temperatures can vary from 0.4 K to 750 K for different samples. We have also identified the Meissner effect in the field parallel to the tube axis up to room temperature for aligned and physically separated multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). The magnitude of the Meissner effect is in quantitative agreement with the predicted penetration depth from the measured carrier density. Furthermore, the bundling of individual MWNTs into closely packed bundles leads to a large enhancement in the diamagnetic susceptibility, which is the hallmark of the Josephson coupling among the tubes in bundles. These results consistently indicate quasi-1D high-temperature superconductivity in carbon nanotubes.