Electron-phonon coupling mechanisms for hydrogen-rich metals at high pressure

2017/08/31 by K. Tanaka, К. Tanaka, John S. Tse +3
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Bending #Bent molecular geometry #Composite material #Condensed matter physics #Coupling (piping) #Electron #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Hydrogen #Materials science #Metallic hydrogen #Phonon #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Range (aeronautics) #Spectral function #Superconductivity #cond-mat.supr-con

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.96.100502

published as Physical Review B 96, 100502(R) (2017) · 7 pages, 4 figures; Physics Buzz blog article: http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2017/09/theoretical-progress-toward-room.html

openalex publication_date 2017/09/11 · arxiv created 2017/09/27 · arxiv updated 2017/09/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The mechanisms for strong electron-phonon coupling predicted for hydrogen-rich alloys with high superconducting critical temperature (T_c) are examined within the Migdal-Eliashberg theory. Analysis of the functional derivative of T_c with respect to the electron-phonon spectral function shows that at low pressures, when the alloys often adopt layered structures, bending vibrations have the most dominant effect. At very high pressures, the H-H interactions in two- and three-dimensional extended structures are weakened, resulting in mixed bent (libration) and stretch vibrations, and the electron-phonon coupling process is distributed over a broad frequency range leading to very high T_c.

Citations

• Crystal structure of the superconducting phase of sulfur hydride
• Properties of boson-exchange superconductors
• Superconductivity at very strong coupling
• Transition Temperature of Strong-Coupled Superconductors
• Observation of the Wigner-Huntington Transition to Solid Metallic Hydrogen