Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Hydrides have long been considered promising candidates for achieving room-temperature superconductivity; however, the extremely high pressures typically required for high critical temperatures remain a major challenge in experiment. Here, we propose a class of high-Tc ambient-pressure superconductors with MH4 stoichiometry. These hydrogen-based compounds adopt the bcc PtHg4 structure type, in which hydrogen atoms occupy the one-quarter body-diagonal sites of metal lattices, with the metal atoms acting as chemical templates for hydrogen assembly. Through comprehensive first-principles calculations, we identify three promising superconductors, PtH4, AuH4 and PdH4, with superconducting critical temperatures of 84 K, 89 K, and 133 K, respectively, all surpassing the liquid-nitrogen temperature threshold of 77 K. The remarkable superconducting properties originate from strong electron-phonon coupling associated with hydrogen vibrations, which in turn arise from phonon softening in the mid-frequency range. Our results provide crucial insights into the design of high-Tc superconductors suitable for future experiments and applications at ambient pressure.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Li, Xinxin, Xu, Weishuo, Zhou, Zengguang, Shi, Jingming, Liu, Hanyu, Fang, Yue-Wen, Cui, Wenwen, Li, Yinwei, Marques, Miguel A. L.
Subfield: Geophysics
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1940089598, G2246523359
OpenAlex ID: W4416024893