Phonon-mediated superconductivity in transition-metal trioxides XO3 (X = Ru, Re, Os, Ir, Pt) under pressure

TL;DR

This study investigates the electron-phonon mechanism behind superconductivity in ReO$_3$ and screens 28 XO$_3$ compounds under pressure, predicting several new superconductors with transition temperatures up to 30 K.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of ReO$_3$'s superconductivity and predicts four new pressure-induced superconducting XO$_3$ compounds, expanding the understanding of transition-metal trioxide superconductors.

Findings

ReO$_3$ becomes superconducting at 17 K under 30 GPa.

Four XO$_3$ compounds are predicted to be superconducting at high pressure.

IrO$_3$ and PtO$_3$ are superconducting even at ambient pressure.

Abstract

A recent experiment by Shan {\it et al} [arXiv:2304.09011] found that rhenium trioxide ReO$_3$, a simple metal at the ambient pressure, becomes superconducting with a transition temperature as high as 17 K at 30 GPa. In this paper, we analyze the electron-phonon origin of superconductivity in rhombohedral ReO$_3$ in detail. In addition, we also conduct a high-throughout screening of isostructural transition-metal trioxides XO$_3$ in searching for potential pressure-induced superconductors. Totally twenty-eight XO$_3$ compounds have been studied, in which four candidates RuO$_3$, OsO$_3$, IrO$_3$ and PtO$_3$ are predicted superconducting with the transition temperatures of 26.4, 30.3, 0.9 and 2.8 K at 30 GPa, respectively. Both IrO$_3$ and PtO$_3$ stay superconducting even at the ambient pressure. In ReO$_3$, RuO$_3, $OsO$_3$ and IrO$_3$, the conduction electrons around the Fermi level are dominantly from the X-d and the O-2p orbitals, and their electron-phonon coupling originates from the lattice dynamics of both the heavier transition-metal-atom and the oxygen-atom. Inclusion of spin-orbital coupling would mildly suppress the transition temperatures of these transition-metal trioxide superconductors except RuO$_3$.