Evidence for bulk superconductivity in pure bismuth single crystals at ambient pressure

Abstract

Going cold with Bismuth Many elemental metals, such as lead and aluminum, become superconducting at low temperatures. Bismuth, a semimetal with very low carrier density, stays nonsuperconducting down to 10 mK. Prakash et al. performed tricky magnetization measurements to show that pure bulk bismuth does undergo the superconducting transition at a tiny temperature of about 0.5 mK (see the Perspective by Behnia). Because bismuth does not fit neatly into the standard picture of superconductivity, further theoretical work is necessary to explain the findings. Science , this issue p. 52 ; see also p. 26