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 was the first one, and is one of the few groups able 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 0.9 K. Superconductivity appears when the concentration crosses a threshold corresponding to strain relaxation, and then increases nearly linearly with the concentration.