Highest Tc Continues to Increase Among Organic Superconductors

Abstract

The first organic superconductor was discovered in 1980. Its critical temperature was less than 1 K. The highest critical temperature for superconductivity in an organic material crossed the 10-kelvin mark in 1988. That temperature has increased again: Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory now report synthesis of two new organic superconductors. The critical temperature for one is 11.6 K at ambient pressure; the second material becomes superconducting at 12.8 K under a pressure of 0.3 kbar. (See the figure on page 18.)