Superconductivity above 30K Achieved in Dense Scandium

Superconductivity is one of most intriguing quantum phenomena, and the quest for elemental superconductors with high critical temperature (T_c) is of great scientific significance due to their relatively simple material composition and the underlying mechanism. Here we report the experimental discovery of densely compressed scandium (Sc) becoming the first elemental superconductor with T_c breaking into 30 K range, which is comparable to the T_c values of the classic La–Ba–Cu–O or LaFeAsO superconductors. Our results show that $T_{\mathrm{c}}^{\mathrm{onset}}$ of Sc increases from ∼ 3 K at around 43 GPa to ∼ 32 K at about 283 GPa ($T_{\mathrm{c}}^{\mathrm{zero}}\sim 31$ K), which is well above liquid neon temperature. Interestingly, measured T_c shows no sign of saturation up to the maximum pressure achieved in our experiments, indicating that T_c may be even higher upon further compression.