Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 5: Superconductivity: Sample Preparation and Characterization

TT 5.9: Talk

Monday, March 9, 2026, 11:45–12:00, CHE/0089

From superconductivity to unusual magnetic behaviour in noncentrosymmetric mercurides — •R. Nixon^1,2, N. Zaremba¹, S. Adegboyega³, A. Leithe-Jasper¹, M. Krnel¹, Yu. Prots¹, L. Akselrud^1,4, M. Schmidt¹, U. Burkhardt¹, J. Sichelschmidt¹, L. Amidani^5,6, F. La Mattina⁷, M. Shatruk³, A. Shengelaya⁸, M. Brando¹, Yu. Grin¹, and E. Svanidze¹ — ¹MPI CPfS, Dresden — ²Uni. of St Andrews, UK — ³Florida St. Uni., US — ⁴Ivan Franko Lviv National Uni., Ukraine — ⁵ESRF, Grenoble, France — ⁶HZDR, Dresden — ⁷Lab. for Transport at Nanoscale Interfaces, Duebendorf, Switzerland — ⁸Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State Uni., Georgia

Mercury and superconductivity are forever linked due to the discovery of zero resistivity (Onnes 1911), yet superconductivity in elemental Hg remains non-trivial (Tresca 2022). Here we examine superconductivity in noncentrosymmetric mercurides, A_11−xHg_54+x, (A = Na, Ca, Sr). Due to their complexity, these structures were refined over many years (Tambornino 2015), the Ca and Sr adopt A_11−xHg_54+x (Tkachuk 2008), and Na forms a 3-fold superstructure, Na₁₁Hg₅₂ (Hoch 2012). Mercurides are often structurally characterised, but physical properties are rarely reported. We previously identified Sr_11−xHg_54+x to superconduct (Nixon 2024), motivated by growing interest of unconventional pairing in noncentrosymmetric superconductors (Bauer 2004), we extend to the Na and Ca analogues, also identified to superconduct (Nixon in prep.). Moving to rare-earths, we obtain the related Eu_11−xHg_54+x phase, however, multiple Eu sites give several magnetic phases (Nixon 2025). Research funded by DFG - No. 528628333.

Keywords: Mercurides; Superconductivity; Complex intermetallic compounds; Complex magnetic structure