Pressure effect on superconductivity of vanadium at megabar pressures

The superconducting transition temperature T-c of vanadium has been measured up to 120 GPa by using a superconducting quantum interference device vibrating coil magnetometer. It was found that T-c increased with pressure with a coefficient of dT(c)/dP = 0.1 K/GPa and at the maximum pressure onset of superconductivity reached 17.2 K, the highest T-c among the elemental metals reported so far. Large signal to noise ratio was obtained for detecting the superconductivity of vanadium at megabar pressures in a diamond-anvil cell.