The Palladates Venture

forthcoming

"The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates gave rise to a wide field of research in condensed matter physics. After many decades of searching, superconductivity in a nickelate was reported for the first time in 2019. This gave rise to what some have called the ""nickel age"", providing a family of compounds analogous to cuprates that may shed some light on these fascinating materials. Now, in 2024, we see the need to open a new research front to this decades-long enigma of high-temperature superconductivity. In this project, at the frontier between physics and chemistry, we aim to synthesise and study a new family of palladium-based materials, analogous to the already studied cuprates and nickelates. We plan to apply new ideas to synthesise these compounds and tune their properties. We will also use different techniques to analyse and understand the physics of these oxides and ultimately be able to observe superconductivity in the palladium family. The results we obtain will certainly help in our understanding of the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity in any scenario. However, if superconductivity is also observed in any of these materials, we could be looking at the advent of a new age, which we could call the ""palladium age"". "