Abstract
Ytterbium (Yb) metal is divalent and nonmagnetic (4f^{14} configuration). Under pressure its valence increases significantly leading to the expectation that magnetic instabilities and other highly correlated electron effects may appear before a stable trivalent state is reached (4f^{13} configuration). We carried out electrical resistivity and ac magnetic susceptibility measurements to 179GPa over the temperature range 1.4-295K. No evidence for magnetic order is observed. However, Yb becomes a superconductor at 86GPa with T_{c}≃1.4 K, increasing to 4.6K at 179GPa. X-ray absorption spectroscopy shows that Yb remains mixed valent to at least 125GPa, pointing to an active role of f electrons in the emergence of superconductivity in this simple, elemental solid.
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