Anharmonic theory of superconductivity in the high-pressure materials

Electron-phonon superconductors at high pressures have displayed the highest values of critical superconducting temperature Tc on record, now rapidly approaching room temperature. Despite the importance of high-P superconductivity in the quest for room-temperature superconductors, a mechanistic unde...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Setty, Chandan, Baggioli, Matteo, Zaccone, Alessio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/705050
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/705050
https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.094519
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Anharmonicities
Applied Pressure
Effect of Pressure
Function of Pressure
Optical Phonon Energies
Optical Phonons
Room-Temperature Superconductors
Física
Descripción
Sumario:Electron-phonon superconductors at high pressures have displayed the highest values of critical superconducting temperature Tc on record, now rapidly approaching room temperature. Despite the importance of high-P superconductivity in the quest for room-temperature superconductors, a mechanistic understanding of the effect of pressure and its complex interplay with phonon anharmonicity and superconductivity is missing, as numerical simulations can bring only system-specific details, clouding out key players controlling the physics. Here we develop a minimal model of electron-phonon superconductivity under an applied pressure which takes into account the anharmonic decoherence of the optical phonons. We find that Tc behaves nonmonotonically as a function of the ratio Γ/ω0, where Γ is the optical phonon damping and ω0 is the optical phonon energy at zero pressure and momentum. Optimal pairing occurs for a critical ratio Γ/ω0 when the phonons are on the verge of decoherence ("diffusonlike"limit). Our framework gives insights into recent experimental observations of Tc as a function of pressure in the complex BCS material TlInTe2