Novel superconductivity in metallic SnH(4) under high pressure.
From first-principles calculations, a high-pressure metallic phase of SnH(4) with a novel layered structure intercalated by "H(2)" units is revealed. This structure is stable at pressure between 70 and 160 GPa. A remarkable feature of this structure is the presence of soft modes in the phonon band structure induced by Fermi surface nesting and Kohn anomalies that lead to very strong electron-phonon coupling. The application of the Allen-Dynes modified McMillan equation with the calculated electron-phonon coupling parameter lambda shows that a superconducting critical temperature close to 80 K can be achieved at 120 GPa.
Tse
J S
JS
Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, S7N 5E2. John.Tse@usask.ca
Yao
Y
Y
Tanaka
K
K