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Multiband Nature of the Room-Temperature Superconductivity in Compressed LaH$_{10}$

Superconductivity 2020-03-18 v1 Materials Science

Abstract

Recently, the discovery of room-temperature superconductivity (SC) was experimentally realized in the fcc phase of LaH10_{10} under megabar pressures. This SC of compressed LaH10_{10} has been explained in terms of strong electron-phonon coupling (EPC), but the mechanism of how the large EPC constant and high superconducting transition temperature TcT_{\rm c} are attained has not yet been clearly identified. Based on the density-functional theory and the Migdal-Eliashberg formalism, we reveal the presence of two nodeless, anisotropic superconducting gaps on the Fermi surface (FS). Here, the small gap is mostly associated with the hybridized states of H ss and La ff orbitals on the three outer FS sheets, while the large gap arises mainly from the hybridized state of neighboring H ss or pp orbitals on the one inner FS sheet. Further, we find that the EPC constant of compressed YH10_{10} with the same sodalite-like clathrate structure is enhanced due to the two additional FS sheets, leading to a higher TcT_{\rm c} than LaH10_{10}. It is thus demonstrated that the multiband pairing of hybridized electronic states is responsible for the large EPC constant and room-temperature SC in compressed hydrides LaH10_{10} and YH10_{10}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1910.05875,
  title  = {Multiband Nature of the Room-Temperature Superconductivity in Compressed LaH$_{10}$},
  author = {Chongze Wang and Seho Yi and Jun-Hyung Cho},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.05875},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

9 pages, 11 figures, 1 table