Synthesis and Investigation of a Family of Gold Tellurides in an Attempt to Characterize and Explore Superconductivity

Abstract

Previously reported materials in the gold-tellurium family have been shown to be promising materials to investigate for superconductivity due to the unique properties of the noble metal. Similarly, silver-gold chalcogenides have been subject of several studies, which have contributed to describe the family’s characteristics. Of such candidates, this study reports synthesis attempts of compounds 1:1 AuTe and 1:1:2 AuAgTe2 via a high-pressure high-temperature apparatus. To evaluate superconductivity, products were characterized by pXRD patterns and magnetic data, as the performance of these measurements showed that under 6 GPa and 10 GPa and a variety of temperature, thermodynamically stable AuTe2 phases were favorable, with peaks of impurities including gold, tellurium, and boron nitride. However, based on the knowledge gained here, some direction into future research on these compounds are made.