At this stage we can grant something novel is happening and it is at least comparable to superconductance. Looking now at what was done, i am also sure that replication and new work will be difficult.
These are still novel effects taking place at our temperature range. considering that low temp super conductance is also novel and have now been worked on for a centruy, perhaps we should be patient.
We truly have a long way to go.
Good Indian Researcher Has Improving LK99 Replications Despite Previous Replication Failures
August 10, 2023 by Brian Wang
VPS Awana has been trying for weeks to get a good LK99 replication. He has been in direct contact with the Korean team. He published two arxiv preprints talking about how his previous samples didn’t work.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/08/good-indian-researcher-has-improving-lk99-replications-despite-previous-replication-failures.html
The report of synthesis of modified Lead apatite (LK-99) with evidence of superconductivity at more than boiling water temperature has steered the whole scientific community. There have been several failures to reproduce superconductivity in LK-99 including partial successes. Here, we have continued our efforts to synthesize phase pure LK-99 with improved precursors. The process has been followed as suggested by Sukbae Lee et. al.,. The phase purity of each precursor is evidenced by Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and well fitted by Rietveld refinement. The PXRD confirms the synthesis of phase pure polycrystalline LK-99 with apatite structure. The freshly synthesized sample does not show any signature of superconductivity levitation on a magnet (diamagnetism). The magnetization measurements on SQUID also show that LK-99 is diamagnetic at 280 K, there is no sign of superconductivity in LK-99 at room temperature. Moreover, we have also performed first principle calculations to investigate the electronic band structure of the LK-99 near Fermi level. Our study verifies that the Cu doped lead apatite (LK-99) has bands crossing at Fermi level, indicating generation of strong correlation in the system.
Their first principal studies support the mechanisms proposed by H. T. Kim, i.e., doping of Cu atoms at Pb site enhances the electronic correlations in LK-99. (from the August 7, 2023 paper). Their new results are improved.
It is good that someone is making a solid attempt at making LK99 work experimentally. Someone who can fail multiple times and have a friendly talk to give the original researchers a fair hearing. The assumption is that it is a difficult process to replicate but they will trying for more than 1-2 weeks to make it work and they took up the Korean offer of assistance in replication.
Shockingly, trying to make it better with persistence has better results. The continued open minded repeated effort is getting vastly improving results. There are continued positive theoretical avenues for improved results from other labs. They can add more oxygen, adjust the copper configuration and try adding gold or silver instead.
Nextbigfuture looks forward to continued efforts and new improving preprint results from VPS Awana.
The original korean researchers need to provide a high quality paper, which they say will take til the end of the month or next month. They have shared original samples with other researchers. The other researchers need to provide bullet proof high quality analysis to change the opinion of most of the scientists and observers.
Researchers need to make multiple attempts with the chemical vapor deposition process. The thin film chemical vapor deposition process for LK99 is the only one that the original team said had superconducting resistance.
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