SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND PHASE-TRANSITION OF ZIRCONIUM UNDER HIGH-PRESSURE UP TO 50GPA

The superconducting transition temperature, Tc, of group-IV transition metal zirconium has been studied as a function of pressure up to 50 GPa in relation to the pressure-induced structural phase transition. Corresponding to a phase transition from hexagonal to bcc structure, a discontinuous increase of the Tc is observed at 30 GPa. For the bcc phase, a high Tc of 11 K has been developed. The result suggests that an electronic configuration similar to that of the bcc Nb is induced in the bcc phase as a result of an increase in valence d-electron numbers by the s-d electronic transformation. The observation of the high Tc is decisive experimental evidence for a pressure-induced transformation from group-IV transition metal to group-V transition metal. © 1990, THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN. All rights reserved.