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Superconducting Phases in Lithium Decorated Graphene LiC 6

Superconductivity 2018-09-20 v2

Abstract

A study of possible superconducting phases of graphene has been constructed in detail. A realistic tight binding model, fit to ab initio calculations, accounts for the Li-decoration of graphene with broken lattice symmetry, and includes ss and dd symmetry Bloch character that influences the gap symmetries that can arise. The resulting seven hybridized Li-C orbitals that support nine possible bond pairing amplitudes. The gap equation is solved for all possible gap symmetries. One band is weakly dispersive near the Fermi energy along ΓM\Gamma\rightarrow M where its Bloch wave function has linear combination of dx2y2d_{x^2-y^2} and dxyd_{xy} character, and is responsible for dx2y2 d_{x^{2}-y^{2}} and dxyd_{xy} pairing with lowest pairing energy in our model. These symmetries almost preserve properties from a two band model of pristine graphene. Another part of this band, along KΓK\rightarrow \Gamma, is nearly degenerate with upper ss band that favors extended ss wave pairing which is not found in two band model. Upon electron doping to a critical chemical potential μ1=0.22eV\mu_1=0.22 eV the pairing potential decreases, then increases until a second critical value μ2\mu_2=1.3 eV at which a phase transition to a new phase which is not appear in two band model. This phase in the pristine graphene converts to usual extended s-wave pairing.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1804.03747,
  title  = {Superconducting Phases in Lithium Decorated Graphene LiC 6},
  author = {Rouhollah Gholami and Rostam Moradian and Sina Moradian and Warren E. Pickett},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.03747},
  year   = {2018}
}