EAGER: SUPER: Electrochemical Protonation to Achieve Superconducting Matter

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Nontechnical Abstract:Superconductors are used for electricity transmission, quantum computing, and for making strong magnets essential for medical imaging, nuclear fusion, and particle accelerators. Currently they are cryogenically cooled, or need to be put under tremendous pressure, which drive up the operating cost. Discovering room-temperature normal-pressure superconductors is a grand challenge in science, and would enable new energy technologies, sensors, and information technologies. In this project, the team aims to develop new electrochemical control of superconductors that would allow a new design degree of freedom. This approach is potentially transformative as electrochemical confinement/retention will be much easier to industrialize than pressure confinement/retention, and also can be easily miniaturized to micron-diameter lines, with highly insulating and stable solid electrolytes that enable the dynamic tuning of dopant chemical potentials. Technical Abstract:We will establish processing-structure-properties relationships for quantum phases of cuprates and iridates. The proposed electrochemical control of protonation and oxygen deficiency will allow us to reach otherwise unachievable, high-temperature and ambient-pressure superconducting phases. In addition, the proposed autonomous oxide synthesis is capable of simultaneously making and interrogating a wide range of oxide chemistries in a high-throughput manner. A terahertz probe method will be used for rapid mapping and screening of temperature-dependent transport properties. The team will use the experimentally acquired data to learn a predictive mapping between the input control variables (precursor chemistry, flash heating-time profiles, and dynamical electrochemical hydrogen doping or oxygen deficiency) and superconductivity, with real-time design and process control. This project will also establish high-throughput exploration for autonomous design and manufacturing, and also stimulate broad interests and educate a broad range of audiences at the intersection of materials design, computation, quantum phase physics, and high-throughput experimental methods.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.