S1

Supporting Information

Crystal Growth and Characterization of HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8+δ

Superconductor with the Highest Critical Temperature at Ambient

Pressure Bastien Loret1,5, Anne Forget1, Jean-Baptiste Moussy1, Sylvie Poissonnet2, Patrick Bonnaillie2, Gaston Collin3, Pierre Thuéry4, Alain Sacuto5 and Dorothée Colson1* 1 SPEC, CEA, CNRS-UMR 3680, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif sur Yvette Cedex 91191, France 2 SRMP, DMN, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif sur Yvette Cedex 91191, France 3 LPS, C.N.R.S. UMR 8502, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay 91405, France 4 NIMBE, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif sur Yvette Cedex 91191, France 5 Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, 10, rue A. Domon et L. Duquet, PARIS Cedex 13 75205, France Experimental Section

Crystal growth: Starting mixture for crystal growth were prepared using HgO (99%), BaO (99.5%), CaO (99.9%) and

CuO (99.995%) oxides. All manipulations of oxides were carried out in an Ar-gas-filled glove box. The reagents were

weighted, mixed and ground, and the resulting powder was directly placed in an alumina crucible or pressed into two

pellets of 1.7 g with the nominal composition 1223 located on both sides of a third pellet of 0.7 g of 0223 composition

(without HgO). The pellets were placed in an alumina crucible and sealed in an evacuated quartz tube (13 mm in

diameter, 70 mm in length). The best results were obtained by compacting the powders into pellets. For the sake of

safety, the tube was enclosed in a stainless steel container. Heat treatments were carried out in vertical tubular furnaces.

Crystal growth was most favourable close to 860 °C. Typical growth conditions were as follows: the sample was heated

at 725 °C in an alumina crucible for 5-24 h, then heated rapidly (300 °C/h) to 860 °C and soaked for 3 h. The

temperature was afterwards lowered to 600 °C at a rate of 5 °C/h, and the furnace was cooled down to room

temperature at 200 °C/h.

X-ray Diffraction and Crystal Structure Analysis: The data were collected at 150(2) K on a Nonius Kappa-CCD area

detector diffractometer1 using graphite-monochromated Mo Kα radiation (λ = 0.71073 Å). The crystals used were

small platelets cut from the large synthesized crystals. The unit cell parameters were determined from ten frames,

then refined on all data. The data (combinations of ϕ- and ω-scans giving a complete data set up to θ = 35°, with a

minimum redundancy of at least 8 for 90% of the reflections) were processed with HKL2000.2 Absorption effects were

corrected empirically with the program SCALEPACK.2 The structures were refined by full-matrix least-squares on F2

with SHELXL-2014.3 All atoms were refined with anisotropic displacement parameters (Table S3) and no restraint was

applied, except for atom O4 which was refined isotropically with a displacement parameter constrained to be equal to

S2

twice the equivalent isotropic displacement parameter of atom O3. Further details of the crystal structure

investigation may be obtained from the Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen

(Germany), on quoting the depository numbers CSD-432856 (O129), -432857 (O119), -432858 (AG105), -432859 (V68),

and -432860 (V42).

Magnetic measurements: Measurements of DC magnetic susceptibility down to 20 K were carried out by using a SQUID

magnetometer (Cryogenic Limited S600) in a field of 10 Oe. The field was applied in the c-axis direction,

perpendicularly to the largest face of the crystalline platelet. Classical zero field cooled (ZFC) procedure was used. The

field was applied at the lowest temperature and the ZFC magnetization was recorded as a function of increasing

temperatures up to T > Tc. The Tc attributed to the different samples has been determined as the temperature

corresponding to the middle of the superconducting transition.

Polarized micro-Raman scattering: Raman experiments have been carried out at room temperature using a JY-T64000

spectrometer in single grating configuration using a 1800 grooves/mm grating and a Thorlabs NF533-17 notch filter to

block the stray light. The spectrometer is equipped with a nitrogen-cooled back illuminated CCD detector. The 532 nm

excitation line from a diode pump solid state was used. An Olympus microscope with an objective of magnitude ×50

produces a laser spot of few micrometers. Raman measurements have been performed in backscattering geometry.

Crystals were fixed on their edge in such a way as to align the electric field polarizations of the incident and scattered

light along the cristallographic c-axis (z direction). The incident and scattered light wave vectors are parallel to the a-

axis (x direction). In Porto’s notation,4 this corresponds to the x(zz)x configuration. Each Raman spectrum has been

obtained in one frame, repeated twice to eliminate cosmic spikes, with an acquisition time of 120 s. The resolution is

approximately 1 cm-1.

(1) Hooft, R.W.W., COLLECT, Nonius BV, Delft, The Netherlands 1998.

(2) Otwinowski, Z.; Minor, W., Methods Enzymol. 1997, 276, 307.

(3) Sheldrick, G.M., Acta Crystallogr., Sect. C 2015, 71, 3.

(4) Rousseau, D.L.; Bauman, R.P.; Porto, S.P.S., J. Raman Spectr., 1981, 10, 253.

S3

Table S1. Atomic Positions in HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8+δ.

x y z Multiplicity and Wyckoff symbol

Occupancy

Hg1 0 0 0 1a < 1

Ba1 0.5 0.5 z(Ba1) 2h 1

Ca1 0.5 0.5 z(Ca1) 2h 1

Cu1 0 0 0.5 1b 1

Cu2 0 0 z(Cu2) 2g 1

O1 0.5 0 0.5 2e 1

O2 0.5 0 z(O2) 4i 1

O3 0 0 z(O3) 2g 1

O4 0.5 0.5 0 1c << 1

Table S2. Crystal Data, Refinement Parameters and Occupancies.

O129 O119 AG105 V68 V42

Tc (K) (mid-transition) 128.5 119.0 105.0 68.0 42.0

a (Å) 3.8502(1) 3.8516(1) 3.8510(1) 3.8558(1) 3.8553(1)

c (Å) 15.8120(5) 15.8153(6) 15.8133(6) 15.8256(6) 15.8283(7)

R1 0.020 0.021 0.020 0.020 0.019

wR2 0.051 0.044 0.053 0.052 0.048

z(Ba1) 0.17548(2) 0.17617(3) 0.17688(2) 0.17871(2) 0.17886(2)

z(Ca1) 0.39791(7) 0.39813(10) 0.39834(8) 0.39888(7) 0.39890(8)

z(Cu2) 0.30056(4) 0.30092(6) 0.30134(5) 0.30198(5) 0.30196(5)

z(O2) 0.30187(19) 0.3015(3) 0.3015(2) 0.3017(2) 0.3017(2)

z(O3) 0.1254(3) 0.1245(4) 0.1249(4) 0.1244(3) 0.1240(3)

pa) 0.140 0.124 0.109 0.083 0.069

3p/2 (O4 content) 0.21 0.19 0.16 0.12 0.10

Occupancy(O4) 0.21(3) 0.18(2) 0.13(3) 0.07(3) 0.05(3)

Occupancy(Hg1) 0.894(2) 0.893(2) 0.902(3) 0.914(3) 0.928(3)

a) Electron hole concentration p in the CuO2 planes of HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8+δ from reference 20.

S4

Table S3. Components of the Anisotropic Displacement Parameters (Å2).

Atom Uii O129 O119 AG105 V68 V42

Hg1 U11 = U22 U33

0.01188(14) 0.00592(17)

0.01150(14) 0.0095(2)

0.01133(16) 0.00693(19)

0.01302(15) 0.00785(18)

0.01229(14) 0.00895(17)

Ba1 U11 = U22 U33

0.00713(13) 0.00750(18)

0.00686(14) 0.0110(2)

0.00665(14) 0.0075(2)

0.00759(14) 0.0102(2)

0.00692(13) 0.01111(19)

Ca1 U11 = U22 U33

0.0061(3) 0.0060(3)

0.0057(3) 0.0093(5)

0.0064(3) 0.0057(4)

0.0062(3) 0.0072(4)

0.0055(3) 0.0082(4)

Cu1 U11 = U22 U33

0.0050(2) 0.0053(4)

0.0042(2) 0.0089(5)

0.0049(3) 0.0057(4)

0.0051(2) 0.0078(4)

0.0042(3) 0.0082(4)

Cu2 U11 = U22 U33

0.00503(19) 0.0058(3)

0.00463(19) 0.0095(4)

0.0043(2) 0.0062(3)

0.0051(2) 0.0084(3)

0.0046(2) 0.0089(3)

O1 U11

U22 U33

0.0064(15) 0.0075(16) 0.0088(15)

0.0054(16) 0.0065(16) 0.012(2)

0.0066(18) 0.0088(19) 0.0104(19)

0.0056(16) 0.0075(16) 0.0081(17)

0.0051(17) 0.0080(18) 0.0092(17)

O2

U11

U22 U33

0.0050(11) 0.0090(12) 0.0091(11)

0.0051(11) 0.0080(12) 0.0132(18)

0.0046(12) 0.0093(14) 0.0114(13)

0.0054(12) 0.0083(12) 0.0089(11)

0.0051(12) 0.0073(13) 0.0107(12)

O3 U11 = U22 U33

0.0148(12) 0.0099(16)

0.0164(13) 0.014(3)

0.0123(13) 0.0105(19)

0.0127(12) 0.0085(18)

0.0114(12) 0.0117(19)

Figure S1. Phase diagram for BaO-CaO-CuO in air. Our study has identified a region of low melting compositions for application of the nonstoichiometric melt method. A composition close to “F” is favorable for synthesizing Hg-1223 crystals.

0,00 0,25 0,50 0,75 1,00

0,00

0,25

0,50

0,75

1,000,00

0,25

0,50

0,75

1,00

Hg1234

Hg1223

Hg 1212

I

H

G

F

E

DC B

A

CuO

BaO

CaO Ca

0,8CuO

2Ca2CuO

3

BaCuO2

Ba2Cu

3O5

Ba2CuO

3