Superconductivity in Shear Strained Semiconductors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that applying large elastic shear strains to semiconductors like silicon and silicon carbide can induce superconductivity, revealing a new method for tuning quantum states in materials.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of using shear strain to transition semiconductors into superconductors, supported by first-principles calculations.

Findings

Shear strain can induce superconductivity in semiconductors.

Strain affects bonding, electronic states, and electron-phonon interactions.

The method offers a new pathway for material design and quantum state control.

Abstract

Semiconductivity and superconductivity are remarkable quantum phenomena that have immense impact on science and technology, and materials that can be tuned, usually by pressure or doping, to host both types of quantum states are of great fundamental and practical significance. Here we show by first-principles calculations a distinct route for tuning semiconductors into superconductors by diverse large-range elastic shear strains, as demonstrated in exemplary cases of silicon and silicon carbide. Analysis of strain driven evolution of bonding structure, electronic states, lattice vibration, and electron-phonon coupling unveils robust pervading deformation induced mechanisms auspicious for modulating semiconducting and superconducting states under versatile material conditions. This finding opens vast untapped structural configurations for rational exploration of tunable emergence and transition of these intricate quantum phenomena in a broad range of materials.