We report a successful observation of pressure-induced superconductivity in a topological compound Bi 2 Te 3 with T c of ∼3 K between 3 to 6 GPa. The combined high-pressure structure investigations with synchrotron radiation indicated that the superconductivity occurred at the ambient phase without crystal structure phase transition. The Hall effects measurements indicated the holetype carrier in the pressure-induced superconducting Bi 2 Te 3 single crystal. Consequently, the first-principles calculations based on the structural data obtained by the Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction patterns at high pressure showed that the electronic structure under pressure remained topologically nontrivial. The results suggested that topological superconductivity can be realized in Bi 2 Te 3 due to the proximity effect between superconducting bulk states and Dirac-type surface states. We also discuss the possibility that the bulk state could be a topological superconductor.high-pressure effects | pressure-tuned conductivity | topological superconductors U tilizing high pressure can be a very powerful method to generate new materials states, as demonstrated by either highpressure synthesis of new compounds, or pressure-tuned unique electronic states, such as insulator metal transitions. High pressure is particularly effective in tuning superconductivity as it is well documented that the record high superconducting transition temperature T c for either elements (1) or compounds (2) is created with the application of pressure. Recently, topological insulators (TIs) have generated great interest in the area of condensed matter physics (3-8). These materials have an insulating gap in the bulk, while also possessing conducting gapless edges or surface states in the boundaries that are protected by the timereversal symmetry (8, 9). Similar to TIs, topological superconductors have a full pairing gap in the bulk and gapless Majorana states on the edge or surface (10-13, 18). Majorana Fermions (14), half of ordinary Dirac fermions, could be very useful in topological quantum computing (15-17), which is proscriptive for new concept information technology.

In a prototypical ferromagnet (Ga,mn)As based on a III-V semiconductor, substitution of divalent mn atoms into trivalent Ga sites leads to severely limited chemical solubility and metastable specimens available only as thin films. The doping of hole carriers via (Ga,mn) substitution also prohibits electron doping. To overcome these difficulties, masek et al. theoretically proposed systems based on a I-II-V semiconductor LiZnAs, where isovalent (Zn,mn) substitution is decoupled from carrier doping with excess/deficient Li concentrations. Here we show successful synthesis of Li 1 + y (Zn 1 − x mn x )As in bulk materials. Ferromagnetism with a critical temperature of up to 50 K is observed in nominally Li-excess (y = 0.05-0.2) compounds with mn concentrations of x = 0.02-0.15, which have p-type metallic carriers. This is presumably due to excess Li in substitutional Zn sites. semiconducting LiZnAs, ferromagnetic Li(Zn,mn)As, antiferromagnetic LimnAs, and superconducting LiFeAs systems share square lattice As layers, which may enable development of novel junction devices in the future.

Searching for superconductivity with Tc near room temperature is of great interest both for fundamental science & many potential applications. Here we report the experimental discovery of superconductivity with maximum critical temperature (Tc) above 210 K in calcium superhydrides, the new alkali earth hydrides experimentally showing superconductivity above 200 K in addition to sulfur hydride & rare-earth hydride system. The materials are synthesized at the synergetic conditions of 160~190 GPa and ~2000 K using diamond anvil cell combined with in-situ laser heating technique. The superconductivity was studied through in-situ high pressure electric conductance measurements in an applied magnetic field for the sample quenched from high temperature while maintained at high pressures. The upper critical field Hc(0) was estimated to be ~268 T while the GL coherent length is ~11 Å. The in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements suggest that the synthesized calcium hydrides are primarily composed of CaH6 while there may also exist other calcium hydrides with different hydrogen contents.