Synthesis of Bulk Superconducting LiNbO₂ Crystals Through CaH₂ Reduction.

Authors

Ryan Paxson, Stephanie J Hong, Bicky S Moirangthem, Parham Kabirifar, Saya Takeuchi, Tianyu Li, Chih-Yu Lee, Haotong Liang, Keenan Avers, Kamal R Joshi, Amlan Datta, Makariy A Tanatar, Shanta Saha, Joseph A Dura, Peter Zavalij, Johnpierre Paglione, Ruslan Prozorov, Alexander J Grutter, Efrain E Rodriguez, Ichiro Takeuchi

Published in

Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.). Pages e75377. Oct 14, 2026. Epub Oct 14, 2026.

Abstract

We have synthesized layered superconducting LiNbO₂ crystals through a bulk phase transformation from LiNbO₃ single crystals via CaH₂ reduction. As the Nb valence is reduced from 5+ to 3+, the material undergoes a structural transformation to the resulting product, LiNbO₂, which is accompanied by metallic behavior and a superconducting transition, T_c onset, as high as 14.4 K. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) show that the resulting phase is hole-doped through de-lithiation during the reduction. Magnetization and AC susceptibility measurements from a tunnel diode resonator confirm the bulk nature of superconductivity with a superconducting volume fraction of ≈77% and an upper critical field approaching 26 T. Our study demonstrates extreme hydride reduction as an effective method to induce phase transformations with non-topochemical pathways and can be used to synthesize bulk materials with exotic properties.

PMID:
42876200
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Oct 2026.

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