RESEARCH NEWS

Noble metal nitrides under pressure

FABRICATION AND PROCESSING

(b)
(a)

PtN sitting in the diamond anvil cell viewed through the diamond (left). Schematic of PtN
structure (right). ( 2004 Nature Publishing Group.)

Metal nitrides are of great technical and fundamental

interest, but there are no known binary nitrides of the noble
metals. Now researchers from the Universit Pierre et Marie
Curie in Paris and the Carnegie Institution of Washington
have discovered platinum nitride (PtN), the first noble metal
binary nitride [Gregoryanz et al., Nat. Mater. (2004) 3 (5),
294].
The surprising discovery came during studies of N2 at high
temperatures and pressures (HT/P) using a diamond anvil
cell. In this set up, high temperatures can be achieved either
by inserting a coil and applying a current (generating
temperatures up to 1000 K) or focusing infrared laser
radiation onto a metal absorber in the chamber, which gets
hot and transfers heat to the sample (temperatures up to
5000 K). Experimenting with the latter method, with Pt as
the metal absorber, Eugene Gregoryanz and colleagues
detected an unusual band in the Raman spectra when N2
was heated to 2000 K at a pressure of 50 GPa. Further
analysis by Raman spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray
diffraction confirmed that the researchers had synthesized

PtN. [This is] the highest pressure a new material was

synthesized and recovered back to atmospheric pressure,
says Gregoryanz.
The crystalline binary nitride has a cubic structure and a
remarkably high bulk modulus of 372 5 GPa. Unusually, this
modulus is higher than that of bulk Pt (~270 GPa) and
indicates that it might be possible to synthesize nitrides or
carbides with bulk moduli higher than the metal itself. If one
can form a nitride with Os, for example, whose bulk modulus
is ~400 GPa, one might expect ~500 GPa of OsN, which
would be higher than diamond, explains Gregoryanz. PtN
appears to be a poor metal or a semiconductor with a small
band gap and the researchers are now investigating its
electronic properties. The results also indicate that it might
be possible to form nitrides with other noble metals such as
Au, Ag, and Cu, which could have interesting electrical
properties. Well also be trying to synthesize nitrides with
heavy metals such as Os, Re, W looking for superhard
materials, Gregoryanz told Materials Today.
Cordelia Sealy

New mechanism for high temperature superconductivity required?

MAGNETIC MATERIALS
Christos Panagopoulos and colleagues
at the University of Cambridge have
observed superconducting-like effects in
high temperature superconductors
(HTS) above the transition temperature
Tc [Panagopoulos et al., Phys. Rev. B
(2004) 69, 144508]. The results raise
the possibility of the existence of
superconducting signatures at room
temperature and open up new
questions about the link between
superconductivity and magnetism in the
copper oxide superconductors.

The researchers measured the

magnetization of a typical family of HTS,
La2-xSrxCuO4, in a low magnetic field,
so that superconducting vortices can
penetrate the sample. We followed
closely the evolution of the bulk
magnetization as a function of
temperature all the way from very low
temperatures (T < Tc) up to room
temperature, explains Panagopoulos.
They observed a difference between the
magnetization curves obtained when
warming the sample and those obtained

when cooling the sample. Below Tc, this

hysteresis is caused by the presence of
pinned superconducting vortices. This
[hysteresis] continued smoothly across
Tc, indicating a smooth evolution of the
cause of the hysteresis from above
(almost room temperature) to below
Tc, says Panagopoulos. Our results
can only indicate the presence of
superconducting signatures up to very
high temperatures.
The researchers propose that
superheated, pinned vortices persist in

the normal state. Although more than

one interpretation of the data is
possible, such as superconducting
filaments or some form of magnetism
which encourages superconductivity,
says Panagopoulos, this mechanism
has to be very different to our current
understanding of the link between
superconductivity, magnetism, and
charge carrier concentration and must
involve the presence of some form of
superconductivity above Tc.
Jonathan Wood

July/August 2004

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