University of Houston Physicists Set New Ambient-Pressure Superconductivity Record at 151 Kelvin Using Pressure Quenching
Researchers use pressure quenching to lock in a record superconducting transition temperature of 151 K at ambient pressure, surpassing a 33-year-old record.
Overview
Physicists at the University of Houston have broken the long-standing record for the highest superconducting transition temperature achieved at ambient pressure, reaching 151 Kelvin (approximately minus 122 degrees Celsius). The result, published March 9, 2026 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, surpasses the previous ambient-pressure record of 133 Kelvin that had stood since 1993, according to The Quantum Insider.
The breakthrough relies on a technique called pressure quenching, which applies extreme pressure and cold simultaneously to a mercury-based copper-oxide ceramic, then rapidly releases the pressure to lock in the material’s enhanced superconducting properties under normal atmospheric conditions.
The Pressure Quenching Technique
The material at the center of the experiment is Hg-1223, a mercury-based copper-oxide compound that has held the ambient-pressure superconductivity record since researchers first demonstrated a transition temperature of 133 Kelvin in 1993. The University of Houston team, led by senior author Paul Ching-Wu Chu, the founding director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity (TcSUH), and lead author Liangzi Deng, an assistant professor of physics at UH, applied a fundamentally different approach to coax higher performance from the same class of material.
In pressure quenching, the material is first cooled to near absolute zero while simultaneously being exposed to pressures of up to 300,000 times normal atmospheric pressure. Under these extreme conditions, the crystal structure of the material shifts into a configuration that supports superconductivity at higher temperatures. The critical step is then rapidly releasing the pressure while the material remains cold, effectively trapping the enhanced structural state so that it persists even after the material returns to ambient pressure and warms up, as described by The Quantum Insider.
The resulting 151 Kelvin transition temperature represents an 18-degree improvement over the previous record. The effect proved stable, maintaining its enhanced superconducting behavior for two weeks across five separate samples, according to Phys.org.
Practical Significance and Remaining Gaps
Superconductors conduct electricity with zero resistance, a property that could dramatically improve the efficiency of power grids, medical imaging systems, and fusion energy technologies. Chu noted that transmitting electricity through current grid infrastructure loses approximately 8 percent of the electricity generated, representing billions of dollars in potential savings and substantial environmental benefits if superconducting materials could be deployed at scale, according to The Quantum Insider.
However, the new record remains roughly 140 degrees Celsius below room temperature, meaning practical deployment of this specific material in everyday infrastructure is not yet feasible. The gap between 151 Kelvin and the approximately 293 Kelvin needed for room-temperature operation underscores that pressure quenching alone is unlikely to deliver a complete solution.
A Companion Research Agenda
The UH result was published alongside a companion strategy paper in PNAS by an international team of 16 researchers led by Christoph Heil of Graz University of Technology. That paper, titled “The path to room-temperature superconductivity: A programmatic approach,” argues that no fundamental physical laws rule out superconductivity at ambient temperature and lays out a systematic research agenda, according to Phys.org.
The agenda identifies two central challenges. The first is a prediction challenge: improving computational models to forecast both whether a material can superconduct and whether it can be manufactured at industrial scale. The second is an engineering challenge: using physical manipulation techniques including extreme pressure, chemical doping, nanostructures, and light pulses to artificially generate or amplify superconducting states through what the authors term “quantum metamaterials.” The strategy emphasizes integrating theory, experiment, and artificial intelligence for systematic material discovery rather than relying on trial-and-error approaches, as outlined by Phys.org.
What Comes Next
The pressure quenching result demonstrates that the physical limits of known superconducting materials have not been fully explored. By showing that structural modifications induced under extreme conditions can persist at ambient pressure, the UH team has opened a pathway that other research groups may now apply to different material families.
The research was funded by Intellectual Ventures, the state of Texas through TcSUH, and other foundations. Whether pressure quenching or the broader programmatic approach outlined by the international team can close the remaining 140-degree gap to room temperature remains an open question, but the field now has both a concrete experimental advance and a coordinated theoretical framework to guide the next phase of work.