Superconducting Silicon

Contact: Francesca Chiodi

In Silicon as well as in diamond, the introduction of a very high concentration of Boron leads to superconductivity. Given the elevated necessary doping levels, our group is the only one to master the synthesis of superconducting silicon. The superconducting transition temperature Tc can be adjusted by the boron concentration to reach a value as high as 0.5 K (left hand panel), but saturates when the concentration crosses a threshold corresponding to strain relaxation by the formation of two distinct doping layers (right hand panel).