Machine learning for superconducting materials
Ongoing Research · Hydrogen-Rich Superconductors
Designing hydrogen cages for lower-pressure superconductivity
We use machine-learning interatomic potentials and first-principles calculations to search for host crystals that can confine dense hydrogen networks and stabilize high-temperature superconducting phases at progressively lower pressure.
Active research program
Host lattice · confined H network
In One Sentence
The long-term goal is to replace extreme mechanical compression with chemical and structural confinement, keeping a dense metallic hydrogen network stable at much lower pressure.
The Scientific Challenge
Can a crystal cage do the work of megabar pressure?
Hydrogen-rich materials can support very high superconducting transition temperatures because light hydrogen atoms vibrate at high frequencies and can couple strongly to electrons. The leading examples, however, require pressures of roughly 150–200 GPa. We search for host structures that chemically precompress and geometrically confine the hydrogen sublattice so that the essential superconducting state remains stable much closer to ambient pressure.
Discovery Pipeline
From structural imagination to a testable candidate
Design host cages
Identify crystal motifs and chemical environments capable of confining extended hydrogen networks.
Explore at scale
Machine-learning interatomic potentials rapidly search compositions, structures, and pressure pathways.
Validate stability
First-principles energies and phonons test thermodynamic and dynamical stability.
Lower the pressure
Electron–phonon calculations estimate Tc; decompression simulations test whether the phase can persist.
Research Objectives
What a successful candidate must achieve
A high predicted transition temperature alone is not enough. A credible material must combine the right hydrogen-derived electronic states with structural stability and a plausible route to synthesis or retention.
A persistent hydrogen network
The host lattice must preserve a dense, connected hydrogen framework while the external pressure is reduced.
Strong superconducting ingredients
Hydrogen-derived states near the Fermi level, high-frequency phonons, and strong electron–phonon coupling must coexist.
A realizable low-pressure phase
The structure must be thermodynamically competitive, dynamically stable, or sufficiently long-lived to survive decompression and experimental preparation.
Why It Matters
Bridging spectacular physics and usable conditions
High-pressure hydrides have established that conventional superconductivity can approach room temperature. Discovering a hydrogen-rich phase that retains a high Tc at far lower pressure would convert that proof of principle into a new materials-design problem with practical consequences.
Research Boundary
A target—not yet a claimed material
This is ongoing discovery research. CNMP is not claiming an ambient-pressure, high-temperature hydride superconductor. Machine learning accelerates the search, but every promising candidate still requires quantum-mechanical validation and, ultimately, experimental synthesis and measurement.
Methods & Terms