English

Machine learning-accelerated search of superconductors in B-C-N based compounds and R3Ni2O7-type nickelates

Superconductivity 2025-09-04 v1 Materials Science

Abstract

Superconductor research has traditionally depended on experiments and theoretical approaches. However, the rapid advancement of data-driven methods and machine learning (ML) has opened avenues for accelerating superconductor discovery. Here, we integrated ML with density functional theory (DFT) calculations to efficiently screen conventional B-C-N based superconductors and identify potential high-TC candidates among R3Ni2O7-type bilayer nickelates. We identified 12 new binary and ternary B-C-N based superconductors with TC >= 10 K, including 3 with TC >= 25 K, such as two structural forms of B2CN (TC = 44.8 K and 41.5 K) and TiNbN2 (TC = 26.2 K). These materials share a common feature of strong {\sigma}-bonds, which is key to achieving relatively high TC. Moreover, we proposed Tb3Ni2O7 (TC = 61.6 K) and Ac3Ni2O7 (TC = 70.3 K) as potential high-TC nickelate superconductors under high pressure. Their electronic structures closely resemble those of La3Ni2O7, especially in the hole-type band dominated by Ni-3dz2 orbital character. We also analyzed feature importance in the ML results for both conventional and high-TC superconductors. These results advance the search for new superconductors and enhance the fundamental understanding of superconducting mechanisms.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.03081,
  title  = {Machine learning-accelerated search of superconductors in B-C-N based compounds and R3Ni2O7-type nickelates},
  author = {Xiaoying Li and Wenqian Tu and Run Lv and Li'e Liu and Dingfu Shao and Yuping Sun and Wenjian Lu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.03081},
  year   = {2025}
}