Lithium Found to be a Superconductor at Ambient Pressure for the First Time

A research group of the Low Temperature Laboratory of Helsinki University of Technology TKK, lead by docent Juha Tuoriniemi, have made a discovery related to the superconductivity of lithium. An article on the discovery was published in Nature on May 10, 2007.

Docent Juha Tuoriniemi and his research group found that lithium is a superconductor even at ambient pressure, albeit at extremely low temperatures of less than 1/1000 degrees above absolute zero. The transition temperature was found to be 0.4 mK, lower than the metal had ever been cooled down to previously, which explains why the superconductivity of natural lithium had not been observed in previous studies.

The results of the study demonstrate that lithium is the lightest superconducting metal and, owing to its simplicity, the prototype of all metals; in consequence, this interesting finding is likely to end up in physics textbooks.