Percolation-induced resistivity drop in lutetium dihydride with controllable electrical conductivity over six orders of magnitude

The recent report of near-ambient superconductivity in the nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride has attracted considerable attention.Subsequent follow-up studies confirmed the pressure-induced color changes in both N-free and N-doped LuH_(2) but failed to reproduce superconductivity. It remains a puzzle why the samples in the original report exhibited pronounced resistance anomaly reminiscent of the superconducting transition. Here, we show that percolation of metallic grains with high conductivity through the insulating surfaces in cold-pressed LuH_(2) samples can occasionally produce sharp resistance drops, which even display magnetic field and/or current dependences but stay far from zero resistance. The insulating surface of LuH2grain should be attributed to the modification of hydrogen stoichiometry or the contamination by oxygen/nitrogen, resulting in an increase of resistance by over six orders of magnitude. Such an effect is more significant than that discovered recently in LaH_(3±x), which may indicate that LuH_(2) can be a potential superionic conductor. Our results call for caution in asserting the resistivity drops as superconductivity and invalidate the background subtraction in analyzing the corresponding resistance data.

Discovery of amantadine formate:Toward achieving ultrahigh pyroelectric performances in organics

Pyroelectrics are a class of polar compounds that output electrical signals upon changes in temperature.With the rapid development of flexible electronics,organic pyroelectrics are highly desired.However,most organics suffer from low pyroelectric coefficients or low working temperatures.To date,the realization of superior pyroelectric performance in all-organics has remained a challenge.