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The binary polyhydrides of heavy rare earth lutetium that shares a similar
valence electron configuration to lanthanum have been experimentally discovered
to be superconductive. The lutetium polyhydrides were successfully synthesized
at high pressure and high temperature conditions using a diamond anvil cell in
combinations with the in-situ high pressure laser heating technique. The
resistance measurements as a function of temperature were performed at the same
pressure of synthesis in order to study the transitions of superconductivity
(SC). The superconducting transition with a maximum onset temperature (Tc) 71 K
was observed at pressure of 218 GPa in the experiments. The Tc decreased to 65
K when pressure was at 181 GPa. From the evolution of SC at applied magnetic
fields, the upper critical field at zero temperature {\mu}0Hc2(0) was obtained
to be ~36 Tesla. The in-situ high pressure X-ray diffraction experiments imply
that the high Tc SC should arise from the Lu4H23 phase with Pm-3n symmetry that
forms a new type of hydrogen cage framework different from those reported for
previous light rare earth polyhydride superconductors.
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