TY - JOUR
T1 - RSAVS superconductors
T2 - Materials with a superconducting state that is robust against large volume shrinkage
AU - Huang, Cheng
AU - Guo, Jing
AU - Zhang, Jianfeng
AU - Stolze, Karoline
AU - Cai, Shu
AU - Liu, Kai
AU - Weng, Hongming
AU - Lu, Zhongyi
AU - Wu, Qi
AU - Xiang, Tao
AU - Cava, Robert J.
AU - Sun, Liling
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Physical Society.
PY - 2020/7
Y1 - 2020/7
N2 - The transition temperature (TC) between normal and superconducting states usually exhibits a dramatic increase or decrease with increasing applied pressure. Here we present, in contrast, a type of superconductor that exhibits the exotic feature that TC is robust against large volume shrinkages (RSAVS, so naming them "RSAVS superconductors") induced by applied pressure. Extraordinarily, our previous studies found that the TC in the two materials stays almost constant over a large pressure range, e.g., over 136 GPa in the (TaNb)0.67(HfZrTi)0.33 high-entropy alloy and 141 GPa in the NbTi commercial alloy. Here, we show that the RSAVS behavior also exists in another high-entropy alloy, (ScZrNbTa)0.6(RhPd)0.4, and in superconducting elemental Ta and Nb, indicating that this behavior occurs universally in a certain kind of superconductor, composed of only transition metal elements, with a body-centered cubic lattice. Our electronic structure calculations indicate that in the RSAVS state the contribution of the degenerate dx2-y2 and dz2 orbital electrons remains almost unchanged at the Fermi level, suggesting that these are the electrons that may play a crucial role in stabilizing the TC in the RSAVS state. We preliminarily analyzed the reasonability and validity of this suggestion by the Homes law.
AB - The transition temperature (TC) between normal and superconducting states usually exhibits a dramatic increase or decrease with increasing applied pressure. Here we present, in contrast, a type of superconductor that exhibits the exotic feature that TC is robust against large volume shrinkages (RSAVS, so naming them "RSAVS superconductors") induced by applied pressure. Extraordinarily, our previous studies found that the TC in the two materials stays almost constant over a large pressure range, e.g., over 136 GPa in the (TaNb)0.67(HfZrTi)0.33 high-entropy alloy and 141 GPa in the NbTi commercial alloy. Here, we show that the RSAVS behavior also exists in another high-entropy alloy, (ScZrNbTa)0.6(RhPd)0.4, and in superconducting elemental Ta and Nb, indicating that this behavior occurs universally in a certain kind of superconductor, composed of only transition metal elements, with a body-centered cubic lattice. Our electronic structure calculations indicate that in the RSAVS state the contribution of the degenerate dx2-y2 and dz2 orbital electrons remains almost unchanged at the Fermi level, suggesting that these are the electrons that may play a crucial role in stabilizing the TC in the RSAVS state. We preliminarily analyzed the reasonability and validity of this suggestion by the Homes law.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.071801
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.071801
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092761050
SN - 2475-9953
VL - 4
JO - Physical Review Materials
JF - Physical Review Materials
IS - 7
M1 - 071801
ER -