Crystalline and amorphous structures are two of the most common solid‐state phases. Crystals having orientational and periodic translation symmetries are usually both short‐range and long‐range ordered, while amorphous materials have no long‐range order. Short‐range ordered but long‐range disordered materials are generally categorized into amorphous phases. In contrast to the extensively studied crystalline and amorphous phases, the combination of short‐range disordered and long‐range ordered structures at the atomic level is extremely rare and so far has only been reported for solvated fullerenes under compression. Here, a report on the creation and investigation of a superconducting quasi‐1D material with long‐range ordered amorphous building blocks is presented. Using a diamond anvil cell, monocrystalline (TaSe₄)₂I is compressed and a system is created where the TaSe₄ atomic chains are in amorphous state without breaking the orientational and periodic translation symmetries of the chain lattice. Strikingly, along with the amorphization of the atomic chains, the insulating (TaSe₄)₂I becomes a superconductor. The data provide critical insight into a new phase of solid‐state materials. The findings demonstrate a first ever case where superconductivity is hosted by a lattice with periodic but amorphous constituent atomic chains.

中文翻译：

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远程有序无定形原子链作为超导准一维晶体的构建基块。

晶体和非晶态结构是两种最常见的固态相。具有取向和周期性平移对称性的晶体通常都是短程和长程有序的，而非晶态材料则没有长程有序。短程有序但远程无序的材料通常分为非晶相。与广泛研究的结晶相和非晶相相比，在原子水平上短程无序和长程有序结构的组合极为罕见，到目前为止，仅报道了压缩状态下的溶剂化富勒烯。在此，将介绍有关具有远距离有序非晶结构块的超导准一维材料的创建和研究的报告。使用单晶金刚石砧盒（TaSe ₄）₂ I被压缩，并创建了一个系统，其中TaSe ₄原子链处于非晶态，而不会破坏链晶格的取向和周期性平移对称性。令人惊讶的是，随着原子链的非晶化，绝缘（TaSe ₄）₂ I成为超导体。数据提供了对固态材料新阶段的关键见解。这些发现证明了有史以来第一个案例，其中超导电性是由具有周期性但无定形组成原子链的晶格占据的。