English

$d$-wave superconductivity as a model for diborides apart MgB$_2$

Superconductivity 2023-03-28 v2

Abstract

Recently, Pei et al. (arXiv2105.13250) reported that ambient pressure β{\beta}-MoB2_2 exhibits a phase transition to α{\alpha}-MoB2_2 (space group: P6/mmmP6/mmm) at pressure P~70 GPa and this high-pressure phase is a high-temperature superconductor exhibited Tc=32KT_c=32 K at P~110 GPa. Despite α{\alpha}-MoB2_2 has the same crystalline structure as ambient pressure MgB2_22 and the TcT_c's of α{\alpha}-MoB2_2 and MgB2_2 are very close, the first principles calculations showed that in α{\alpha}-MoB2_2 the states near the Fermi level, ϵF{\epsilon}_F, are dominated by the dd-electrons of Mo atoms, while in MgB2_2 the pp-orbitals of boron atomic sheets dominantly contribute to the states near the ϵF{\epsilon}_F. More recently, Hire et al. (arXiv2212.14869) reported that the P6/mmmP6/mmm-phase can be stabilized at ambient pressure in Nb1xMoxB2Nb_{1-x}Mo_{x}B_{2} solid solutions, and these ternary alloys exhibit Tc=8KT_c=8 K. In addition, Pei et al. (Sci. China-Phys. Mech. Astron. 65, 287412 (2022)) showed that compressed WB2_2 exhibits Tc=15KT_c=15 K at P~121 GPa. Here, we analyzed experimental data reported for P6/mmmP6/mmm-phases of Nb1xMoxB2Nb_{1-x}Mo_{x}B_{2} (x = 0.25; 1.0) and highly-compressed WB2_2, and showed that these three phases exhibit dd-wave superconductivity. We also deduced the gap-to-transition temperature ratio for these three phases. We found that Nb0.75Mo0.25B2Nb_{0.75}Mo_{0.25}B_{2} exhibits high strength of nonadiabaticity, which is quantified by the ratio of Tθ/TF=3.5T_{\theta}/T_F=3.5, which is by one order of magnitude exceeds the ratio in MgB2_2, α{\alpha}-MoB2_2, WB2_2, pnictides, cuprates, and highly-compressed hydrides.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2301.03357,
  title  = {$d$-wave superconductivity as a model for diborides apart MgB$_2$},
  author = {E. F. Talantsev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.03357},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

23 pages, 9 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T08:07:33.924Z