arXiv subjects

Shu Cai

Publications and source records attributed to Shu Cai.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Enhanced and robust superconductivity in La0.8Sr0.2NiO2 membranes compressed up to 210 GPa

The discovery of superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelate thin films has opened a new frontier for exploring unconventional oxide superconductors beyond the copper oxide family. However, the presence of substrate hampers investigations under very high pressure. Recently, this problem was circumvented by a study of freestanding Nd0.85Sr0.15NiO2 membranes, which revealed that superconducting transition temperature kept increasing as the pressure was ramped up to 91 GPa, without showing signs of saturation. Naturally, one wonders what would happen at even higher pressures. Here, we report that superconductivity in a freestanding La0.8Sr0.2NiO2 membrane persists under applied ultrahigh pressures up to 210 GPa. The superconducting transition onset temperature exhibits a continuous dome-like evolution, increasing from 16 K at ambient pressure to a peak of 74.5 K at 146 GPa, and then gradually decreasing to 57.4 K at 210 GPa. Such robustness of superconductivity against ultrahigh pressure has not been observed in high-Tc oxide superconductors before.

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arXiv2026

Shear-stress-constrained superconductivity in Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates

Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates exhibit superconductivity under pressure in bulk crystals and under epitaxial constraint in thin films, while remaining highly sensitive to sample quality, oxygen content, defects, and stress conditions. We propose that the metastable RP lattice becomes superconducting only when the local constrained deformation of the Ni-O framework falls within a bounded shear-strain window. This deformation controls octahedral rotations, the interlayer Ni-O-Ni bond angle, and coupling between Ni dz2 and dx2-y2 orbitals. This shear-stress-constrained superconductivity scenario unifies the understanding of the pressure threshold, reversibility, spatial inhomogeneity, pressure-medium dependence, film-substrate sensitivity, and reproducibility.

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arXiv2026

Pressure-enhanced superconductivity and its correlation with suppressed resistance dip in (La,Pr)3Ni2O7 films

The discovery of superconductivity with a transition temperature (Tc) exceeding 40 K in La3Ni2O7 and (La,Pr)3Ni2O7 thin films at ambient pressure provides a viable platform for the experiments that can only be conducted under ambient-pressure conditions, and for the theoretical investigations aimed at understanding the commonalities and peculiarities of the behaviors related to the superconductivity between the film and the compressed bulk systems - including the effects of oxygen vacancies and strain. Consequently, it is crucial to determine whether Tc can be further enhanced and to uncover the underlying physics that controls the Tc value in these ambient-pressure superconducting thin films. Here, we report a systematic study of hydrostatic pressure effects on the superconducting properties of (La,Pr)3Ni2O7 thin films. We find that external pressure universally enhances Tc of the film samples regardless of their initial Tc value. The onset Tc of 68.5 K at 2.0 GPa demonstrates a notable increase from 62 K at 0.3 GPa. Furthermore, we observe that the samples without zero resistance show a resistance dip just above the superconducting transition, whereas the samples that exhibit zero resistance do not display this dip. Applying pressure can suppress the dips and drive the system toward zero resistance. Based on our results, we propose that this feature is associated with oxygen vacancies and that the depth of the dip can serve as an indicator of the concentration of the vacancies. It is plausible that the dip is caused by the localization of mobile electrons at the vacancy sites. Applying pressure can delocalize these electrons, which in turn may contribute to the increase in Tc.

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arXiv2026

T-linear specific heat in pressurized and magnetized Shastry-Sutherland Mott insulator SrCu2(BO3)2

The pressurized Shastry-Sutherland Mott insulator SrCu2(BO3)2 has been found to host a plaquette-singlet phase and an antiferromagnetic phase that break different symmetries spontaneously.The recent experiment showed that their transition is of a first order nature, which seems against the pursuit of exotic and deconfined degrees of freedom in this famous frustrated quantum magnet. We found a new direction in this study. By applying a magnetic field to the material, we discover that SrCu2(BO3)2 exhibits a universal and metallic T-linear specific heat behavior in a large magnetitic field range close to the pressure of zero-field first order transition between plaquette-singlet and antiferromagnetic phases. Such an unexpected gapless response from an electronically gapped Mott insulator could be attributed to magnetized Dirac spinons liberated by the combined effect of magnetic field and pressure, consistently seen from our quantum many-body thermal tensor network computation of the Shastry-Sutherland model under magnetic field. Such a robust and universal T-linear specific heat phase points out the richness of the phase diagram of the material expanded by the axes of pressure and magnetic field and is calling for new theoretical frameworks to its full explanation.

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arXiv2026

RIS-Enhanced Information-Decoupled Symbiotic Radio Over Broadcasting Signals

This paper studies a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-enhanced decoupled symbiotic radio (SR) system in which a primary transmitter delivers common data to multiple primary receivers (PRs), while a RIS-based backscatter device sends secondary data to a backscatter receiver (BRx). Unlike conventional SR, the BRx performs energy detection and never decodes the primary signal, thereby removing ambiguity and preventing exposure of the primary payload to unintended receivers. In this paper, we formulate the problem as the minimization of the transmit power subject to a common broadcast rate constraint across all PRs and a bit error rate (BER) constraint at the BRx. The problem is nonconvex due to the unit-modulus RIS constraint and coupled quadratic forms. Leveraging a rate-balanced reformulation and a monotonic BER ratio characterization, we develop a low-complexity penalty-based block coordinate descent algorithm with closed-form updates. Numerical results show fast convergence of the proposed algorithm and reduced power consumption of the considered RIS-enhanced information-decoupled SR system over conventional SR baselines.

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arXiv2025

Signatures of a Lifshitz transition in pressurized electron-doped cuprate

It is well known that the electronic structure of hole-doped cuprate superconductors is tunable through both chemical doping and external pressure, which frequently offer us new insights of understanding on the high-Tc superconducting mechanism. While, for electron-doped cuprate superconductors, although the chemical doping effects have been systematically and thoroughly investigated, there is still a notable lack of experimental evidence regarding the pressure-driven coevolution of Tc and electronic structure. In this study, we report the first observation on the signatures of pressure-induced Lifshitz transition in Pr0.87LaCe0.13CuO4+delta (PLCCO) single crystal, a typical electron-doped cuprate superconductor, through the comprehensive high-pressure measurements of electrical resistance, Hall coefficient (RH) and synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD). Our results reveal that, at 40 K, the ambient-pressure RH with a significantly negative value decreases with increasing pressure until it reaches zero at a critical pressure (Pc ~ 10 GPa). Meanwhile, the corresponding Tc exhibits a slight variation within this pressure range. As pressure is further increased beyond Pc, RH changes its sign from negative to positive and then shows a slight increase, while Tc displays a continuous decrease. Our XRD measurements at 40 K demonstrate that no crystal structure phase transition occurs across the Pc. These results reveal that applying pressure to PLCCO can induce a Lifshitz transition at Pc, manifesting the reconstruction of the Fermi surface (FS), which turns the superconductivity toward fading out. Our calculation further reinforces the Fermi surface reconstruction from electron-dominated to hole-dominated ones at around Pc. These findings provide new evidence that highlights the strong correlation between the superconductivity and the Fermi surface topology in the electron-doped cuprates.

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arXiv2025

Superconducting susceptibility signal captured in a record wide pressure range

In recent years, the resistance signature of the high temperature superconductivity above 250 K in highly compressed hydrides (more than 100 GPa) has garnered significant attention within the condensed matter physics community. This has sparked renewed optimism for achieving superconductivity under room-temperature conditions. However, the superconducting diamagnetism, another crucial property for confirming the superconductivity, has yet to be conclusively observed. The primary challenge arises from the weak diamagnetic signals detected from the small samples compressed in diamond anvil cells. Therefore, the reported results of superconducting diamagnetism in hydrides have sparked intense debate, highlighting the urgent need for workable methodology to assess the validity of the experimental results. Here, we are the first to report the ultrahigh pressure measurements of the superconducting diamagnetism on Nb0.44Ti0.56, a commercial superconducting alloy, in a record-wide pressure range from 5 GPa to 160 GPa. We present detailed results on factors such as sample size, the diamagnetic signal intensity, the signal-to-noise ratio and the superconducting transition temperature across various pressures and different pressure transmitting media. These comprehensive results clearly demonstrate that this alloy is an ideal reference sample for evaluating superconductivity in compressed hydrides,validating the credibility of the experimental systems and superconducting diamagnetic results, as well as determining the nature of the superconductivity of the investigated sample. In addition, these results also provide a valuable benchmark for studying the pressure-induced superconductivity in other material families.

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arXiv2024

Low-temperature mean valence of nickel ions in pressurized La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$

The discovery of high critical temperature (Tc) superconductivity in pressurized La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ has ignited renewed excitement in the search of novel high-Tc superconducting compounds with 3d transition metals. Compared to other ambient-pressure superconductors, such as copper-oxide and iron-oxypnictides, unraveling the mechanisms of the pressure-induced superconductivity poses significant and unique challenges. A critical factor in this phenomenon seems to be related to the electronic configuration of 3d orbitals, which may play a fundamental role in driving high-Tc superconductivity. However, the pressure effects on the mixed-valence states of 3d-orbital cations and their influence on the emergence of high-Tc superconductivity remain poorly understood. Here, we use high-pressure (P) and low-temperature synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy to investigate the influence of pressure on the mean valence change of Ni ions in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$. Our results demonstrate that at a low-temperature of 20 K, the mean valence remains relatively stable across the pressures range from 1 atm to 40 GPa. Based on analyzing the absorption data, we find that, at a critical pressure, the ambient-pressure ordered phases disappear and both the structural and the superconducting phase transition occur. The pressure-induced structural phase transition revealed by our absorption results is consistent with that determined by X-ray diffraction, offering new information for a comprehensive understanding on the pressure-induced superconductivity in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$.

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arXiv2024

Symbol-Level Precoding-Based Self-Interference Cancellation for ISAC Systems

Consider an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system where a base station (BS) employs a full-duplex radio to simultaneously serve multiple users and detect a target. The detection performance of the BS may be compromised by self-interference (SI) leakage. This paper investigates the feasibility of SI cancellation (SIC) through the application of symbol-level precoding (SLP). We first derive the target detection probability in the presence of the SI. We then formulate an SLP-based SIC problem, which optimizes the target detection probability while satisfying the quality of service requirements of all users. The formulated problem is a nonconvex fractional programming (FP) problem with a large number of equality and inequality constraints. We propose a penalty-based block coordinate descent (BCD) algorithm for solving the formulated problem, which allows for efficient closed-form updates of each block of variables at each iteration. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented to showcase the enhanced detection performance of the proposed SIC approach.

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arXiv2024

Superconducting-transition-temperature dependence of superfluid density and conductivity in pressurized cuprate superconductors

What factors fundamentally determine the value of superconducting transition temperature (Tc) in high temperature superconductors has been the subject of intense debate. Following the establishment of an empirical law known as Homes'law, there is a growing consensus in the community that the Tc value of the cuprate superconductors is closely linked to its superfluid density and conductivity. However, all the data supporting this empirical law have been obtained from the ambient-pressure superconductors. In this study, we present the first high-pressure results about the connection of these two quantities with Tc, through the studies on the Bi1.74Pb0.38Sr1.88CuO6+delta and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta, in which the value of their high-pressure resistivity (the reciprocal of conductivity) is achieved by adopting our newly established method, while the value of superfluid density is extracted using the Homes'law. We highlight that the Tc values are strongly linked the two joint response factors of magnetic field and electric field, i.e. superfluid density and conductivity, respectively, implying that the physics governing the determination of Tc is influenced by the intrinsic electromagnetic fields of the system.

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arXiv2024

A novel method for determining the resistivity of compressed superconducting materials

The resistivity of a superconductor in its normal state plays a critical role in determining its superconducting ground state. However, measuring the resistivity of a material under high pressure has long presented a significant technical challenge due to pressure-induced changes in the crystallographic directions, especially for samples with anisotropic layered structures like high-Tc superconductors and other intriguing quantum materials. Here, we are the first to propose a novel and effective method for determining high-pressure resistivity, which relies on the ambient-pressure resistivity, initial sample sizes, lattice parameters, high-pressure resistance, and lattice parameters measured from the same sample. Its validity has been confirmed through our investigations of pressurized copper-oxide superconductors, which demonstrates that this method provides new possibilities for researchers conducting high-pressure studies related to resistivity of these materials.

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arXiv2023

Investigations of key issues on the reproducibility of high-Tc superconductivity emerging from compressed La3Ni2O7

Recently, the signatures of superconductivity near 80 K have been discovered in the single crystal of La3Ni2O7 under pressure, which makes it a new candidate of the high-temperature superconductors dominated by 3d transition elements after the cuprate and iron-pnictide superconductors. However, there are several critical questions that have been perplexing the scientific community. These questions include (1) what factors contribute to the inconsistent reproducibility of the experimental results? (2) what is the fundamental nature of pressure-induced superconductivity: bulk or non-bulk (filamentary-like)? (3) where does the superconducting phase locate within the sample if it is filamentary-like? (4) is the oxygen content important for developing and stabilizing its superconductivity? In this study, we employ comprehensive high-pressure techniques to address these crucial issues. Through our modulated ac susceptibility measurements, we are the first to find that the superconductivity in this nickelate is filamentary-like. Our scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) investigations suggest that the filamentary-like superconductivity most likely emerges at the interface between the La3Ni2O7 and La4Ni3O10 phases. By tuning the oxygen content on the polycrystalline La3Ni2O7, we also find that the oxygen content plays vital role for developing and stabilizing its superconductivity. The upper and lower bounds of the oxygen content are 7.35 and 6.89, respectively. Our results provide not only new insights into understanding the puzzling issues in this material, but also significant information for achieving a better understanding on the superconductivity of this material.

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arXiv2023

Deconfined quantum critical point lost in pressurized SrCu2(BO3)2

In the field of correlated electron materials, the relation between the resonating spin singlet and antiferromagnetic states has long been an attractive topic for understanding of the interesting macroscopic quantum phenomena, such as the ones emerging from magnetic frustrated materials, antiferromagnets and high-temperature superconductors. SrCu2(BO3)2 is a well-known quantum magnet, and it is theoretically expected to be the candidate of correlated electron material for clarifying the existence of a pressure-induced deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP), featured by a continuous quantum phase transition, between the plaquette-singlet (PS) valence bond solid phase and the antiferromagnetic (AF) phase. However, the real nature of the transition is yet to be identified experimentally due to the technical challenge. Here we show the experimental results for the first time, through the state-of-the-art high-pressure heat capacity measurement, that the PS-AF phase transition of the pressurized SrCu2(BO3)2 at zero field is clearly a first-order one. Our result clarifies the more than two-decade long debates about this key issue, and resonates nicely with the recent quantum entanglement understanding that the theoretically predicted DQCPs in representative lattice models are actually a first-order transition. Intriguingly, we also find that the transition temperatures of the PS and AF phase meet at the same pressure-temperature point, which signifies a bi-critical point as those observed in Fe-based superconductor and heavy-fermion compound, and constitutes the first experimental discovery of the pressure-induced bi-critical point in frustrated magnets. Our results provide fresh information for understanding the evolution among different spin states of correlated electron materials under pressure.

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arXiv2023

Robust magnetism against pressure in non-superconducting samples prepared from lutetium foil and H2/N2 gas mixture

Recently, the claim of "near-ambient superconductivity" in a N-doped lutetium hydride attracted enormous following-up investigations in the community of condensed matter physics and material sciences. But quite soon, the experimental results from different groups indicate consistently that no evidence of near-ambient superconductivity is found in the samples synthesized by the same method as the reported one, or by the other alternative methods. From our extended high-pressure heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility measurements on the samples prepared with the lutetium foil and H2/N2 gas mixture, we report the finding of a magnetic transition at the temperature about 56 K. Our results show that this magnetic phase is robust against pressure up to 4.3 GPa, which covers the critical pressure of boosting the claimed near room temperature superconductivity.

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arXiv2023

Superconducting-insulating phase transition in pressurized Ba1-xKxBiO3

We report the first observation of a pressure-induced transition from a superconducting (SC) to an insulating (I) phase in single-crystal Ba1-xKxBiO3 (x = 0.4, 0.43, 0.52, and 0.58) superconductors. X-ray diffraction measurements conducted at 20 K reveal a direct relationship between this SC-I transition and a pressure-induced distortion of crystal structure. With increasing pressure, the lattice parameters a and c of the ambient-pressure superconducting tetragonal (T) phase are compressed continuously below a critical pressure (Pc1), wherein the pressure (P) dependence of superconducting transition temperature (Tc) displays a small variation. However, upon further compression, the lattice of the compressed T phase displays an anisotropic change, and Tc shows a monotonous decrease. When the pressure reaches Pc2 (Pc2 > Pc1), the compressed T phase collapses along the c axis, followed by the disappearance of superconductivity and the appearance of the insulating phase. This SC-I transition is fully reversible, with the critical pressure increasing alongside K doping concentration. These findings are strikingly similar to the SC-I transition observed in hole-doped high-Tc cuprate superconductors under pressure. Identifying their commonalities could deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie high- Tc superconductivity in these two oxide superconductors with a perovskite structure.

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arXiv2023

No evidence of superconductivity in the compressed sample prepared from the lutetium foil and H2/N2 gas mixture

A material described as lutetium-hydrogen-nitrogen (Lu-H-N in short) was recently claimed to have near-ambient superconductivity[Gammon et al, Nature 615, 244, 2023]. If the results could be reproduced by other teams, it would be a major scientific breakthrough. Here, we report our results of transport and structure measurements on a material prepared using the same method as that reported by Gammon et al. Our X-ray diffraction measurements indicated that the obtained sample contained three substances: the FCC-1 phase (Fm-3m) with a lattice parameter a=5.03 {\AA}, the FCC-2 phase (Fm-3m) with a lattice parameter a= 4.755 {\AA} and Lu metal. These two FCC phases are identical to the those reported in the so-called near-ambient superconductor. However, we found that the samples had no evidence of superconductivity, through our resistance measurements in the temperature range of 300 - 4 K and pressure range of 0.9 - 3.4 GPa, and our magnetic susceptibility measurements in the pressure range of 0.8-3.3 GPa and temperature down to 100 K. We also used a laser heating technique to heat the sample to 1800{\deg}C and found no superconductivity in the produced dark blue samples below 6.5 GPa. In addition, the color of the both samples remain dark blue in the pressure range investigated.

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arXiv2023

Pressure-induced coevolution of transport properties and lattice stability in CaK(Fe1-xNix)4As4 (x= 0.04 and 0) superconductors with and without spin-vortex crystal state

Here we report the first investigation on correlation between the transport properties and the corresponding stability of the lattice structure for CaK(Fe1-xNix)4As4 (x=0.04 and 0), a new type of putative topological superconductors, with and without a spin-vortex crystal (SVC) state in a wide pressure range involving superconducting to non-superconducting transition and the half- to full-collapse of tetragonal (h-cT and f-cT) phases, by the complementary measurements of high-pressure resistance, Hall coefficient and synchrotron X-ray diffraction. We identify the three critical pressures, P1 that is the turn-on critical pressure of the h-cT phase transition and it coincides with the critical pressure for the sign change of Hall coefficient from positive to negative, a manifestation of the Fermi surface reconstruction, P2 that is the turn-off pressures of the h-cT phase transition, and P3 that is the critical pressure of the f-cT phase transition. By comparing the high-pressure results measured from the two kinds of samples, we find a distinct left-shift of the P1 for the doped sample, at the pressure of which its SVC state is fully suppressed, however the P2 and the P3 remain the same as that of the undoped one. Our results not only provide a consistent understanding on the results reported before, but also demonstrate the importance of the Fe-As bonding in stabilizing the superconductivity of the iron pnictide superconductors through the pressure window.

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arXiv2022

Flipping of antiferromagnetic to superconducting states in pressurized quasi-one-dimensional manganese-based compounds

One of the universal features of unconventional superconductors is that the superconducting (SC) state is developed in the proximity of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) state. Understanding the interplay between these two states is one of the key issues to uncover the underlying physics of unconventional SC mechanism. Here, we report a pressure-induced flipping of the AFM state to SC state in the quasi-one-dimensional AMn6Bi5 (A = K, Rb, and Cs) compounds. We find that at a critical pressure the AFM state suddenly disappears at a finite temperature and a SC state simultaneously emerges at a lower temperature without detectable structural changes. Intriguingly, all members of the family present the AFM-SC transition at almost the same critical pressures (Pc), though their ambient-pressure unit-cell volumes vary substantially. Our theoretical calculations indicate that the increasing weight of dxz orbital electrons near Fermi energy under the pressure may be the origin of the flipping. These results reveal a diversity of competing nature between the AFM and SC states among the 3d-transition-metal compounds.

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