Superconducting Phase Induced by a Local Structure Transition in Amorphous Sb2Se3 under High Pressure

Physical Review Letters, vol. 127, pp. 127002

Abstract

Superconductivity and Anderson localization represent two extreme cases of electronic behavior in solids. Surprisingly, these two competing scenarios can occur in the same quantum system, e.g., in an amorphous superconductor. Although the disorder-driven quantum phase transition has attracted much attention, its structural origins remain elusive. Here, we discovered an unambiguous correlation between superconductivity and density in amorphous Sb_{2}Se_{3} at high pressure. Superconductivity first emerges in the high-density amorphous (HDA) phase at about 24 GPa, where the density of glass unexpectedly exceeds its crystalline counterpart, and then shows an enhanced critical temperature when pressure induces crystallization at 51 GPa. Ab initio simulations reveal that the bcc-like local geometry motifs form in the HDA phase, arising from distinct "metavalent bonds." Our results demonstrate that HDA phase is critical for the incipient superconductive behavior.

Authors 11

1. Kai Zhang

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research · Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of China

2. Ming Xu

   Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics · Huazhong University of Science and Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

3. Nana Li

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research · Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of China

4. Meng Kai Xu

   Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics · Huazhong University of Science and Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

5. Qian Zhang

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research · Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China

   Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of China

6. Eran Greenberg

   University of Chicago

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

7. Vitali B. Prakapenka

   University of Chicago

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

8. Yu‐Sheng Chen

   University of Chicago

   Affiliation as printed

   NSF’s ChemMatCARS, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

   NSF's ChemMatCARS, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

9. Matthias Wuttig Aachen Institute of Physics IA

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics IA, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

10. Ho‐kwang Mao

    Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research · Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China

    Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of China

11. Wenge Yang

    Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research · Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research

    Affiliation as printed

    Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China

    Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of China