Superconductivity in the antiperovskite Dirac-metal oxide Sr$_3$SnO

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of the first superconducting antiperovskite oxide, Sr$_3$SnO, with a transition temperature around 5 K, featuring Dirac points and potential topological odd-parity superconductivity.

Contribution

It introduces the first superconducting antiperovskite oxide, expanding the class of oxide superconductors and proposing topological superconductivity in this new material.

Findings

Sr$_3$SnO is superconducting with $T_c$ of around 5 K.

Sr$_3$SnO has Dirac points in its electronic structure.

Potential for topological odd-parity superconductivity in hole-doped Sr$_3$SnO.

Abstract

Oxides with perovskite-based structures have been known as essential materials for fascinating phenomena such as high-temperature and unconventional superconductivity. Discoveries of these oxide superconductors have driven the science community to vastly extend the concepts of strongly correlated electron systems. The base of these materials, the cubic perovskite oxides, $AB$O$_3$, also exhibit superconductivity with $T_{\mathrm{c}}$ of up to 30 K, as reported for Ba$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$BiO$_3$. Perovskite oxides have their counterparts, antiperovskite oxides $A_3B$O (or "$B$O$A_3$"), in which the position of metal and oxygen ions are reversed and therefore metallic $B$ ions take unusual negative valence states. However, no superconductivity has been reported among antiperovskite oxides. Here, we report the discovery of the first superconducting antiperovskite oxide Sr$_3$SnO with $T_{\mathrm{c}}$ of around 5 K. Sr$_3$SnO possesses Dirac points in its electronic structure, originating from the inversion of bands with different parities. Based on theoretical analysis, we propose possibility of topological odd-parity superconductivity analogous to the superfluid $^3$He-B, in moderately hole-doped Sr$_3$SnO, originating from unusual orbital texture on the Fermi surface. We envision that this discovery of a new class of oxide superconductor with the inverted valence configuration will stimulate the exploration of topological materials science based on a variety of antiperovskite oxides.