Probing superconductivity in superhydride materials using nanoscale quantum sensors

Tuning pressure provides an interesting playground for the exploration of novel condensed phases. Recent work probing superconductivity in hydride materials at megabar (~ 100 GPa) pressures in diamond anvil cells represents one facet of this rich landscape. Transport studies of super hydrides have consistently demonstrated a sharp drop in sample resistance at high temperatures. However, constraints on sample size, enormous pressure gradients, and complicated sample geometries are testing the limits of conventional high pressure probes of magnetism. To this end, we introduce a novel platform for magnetometry at megabar pressures with high sensitivity and diffraction-limited sub-micron spatial resolution using Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) color centers incorporated directly into the diamond culet. Through simultaneous transport and magnetic measurements, we probe the dual hallmarks of superconductivity, including the first spatially resolved measurements of the Meissner effect, in a high pressure hydride system.