The effects of lithium absorption on the crystal structure and electronic properties of IrSi3, a binary silicide with a noncentrosymmetric crystal structure, were studied. X-ray and neutron diffraction experiments revealed that hexagonal IrSi3 (space group P6_3mc) transforms into trigonal Li2IrSi3 (space group P31c) upon lithium absorption. The structure of Li2IrSi3 is found to consist of a planar kagome network of silicon atoms with Li and Ir spaced at unequal distances between the kagome layers, resulting in a polar structure along the c-axis. Li2IrSi3 exhibited type-II superconductivity with a transition temperature Tc of 3.8 K, displaying a structure type that no previous superconductors have been reported to have.
@article{arxiv.1407.3524,
title = {Superconductivity in Noncentrosymmetric Iridium Silicide Li2IrSi3},
author = {S. Pyon and K. Kudo and J. Matsumura and H. Ishii and G. Matsuo and M. Nohara and H. Hojo and K. Oka and M. Azuma and V. O. Garlea and K. Kodama and S. Shamoto},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.3524},
year = {2014}
}