Critical Role of Hydrogen in Unconventional Superconductors: The Case of Hydrogenated FeSe Layers

TL;DR

Hydrogenation in FeSe layers enhances superconductivity by modifying electronic structure and phonon interactions, leading to a predicted Tc over 40 K and a two-gap superconducting state.

Contribution

This study reveals how hydrogen affects superconductivity in strongly correlated FeSe, highlighting correlation-enhanced electron-phonon coupling as a key mechanism.

Findings

Hydrogen incorporation reshapes Fermi surface topology.

Hydrogen introduces high-frequency phonons that strengthen pairing.

Predicted Tc exceeds 40 K in hydrogenated FeSe.

Abstract

Hydrogenation is known to tune superconductivity in a wide range of materials. While its microscopic role has been clarified in phonon-mediated superconductors such as hydrogenated MgB2, LaH10, and H3S, much less is known for hydrogenated cuprates and iron-based superconductors, where even the underlying structural motifs remain elusive. Using hydrogenated FeSe as a prototypical example, we reveal how hydrogen affects superconductivity in the presence of strong electronic correlations: correlation-induced orbital renormalization shifts hydrogen-derived spectral weight from the high-energy region toward the Fermi surface (FS), remarkably enhancing the electron-phonon coupling (EPC). We predict a structurally stable FeSeH phase where, compared to bare FeSe, hydrogen incorporation reshapes the FS topology and increases the number of channels for electron-phonon scattering, while simultaneously introducing high-frequency phonons that strengthen pairing. First-principles EPC calculations combined with dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) yield a superconducting transition temperature (Tc) exceeding 40 K. Fully anisotropic Eliashberg theory reveals a two-gap superconducting state, consistent with the gap structure experimentally observed in doped FeSe. Our findings identify correlation-enhanced EPC as a plausible microscopic mechanism for iron-based superconductivity and offer a new perspective on pairing in strongly correlated systems. In addition, this work establishes hydrogenated FeSe as a promising platform for engineering two-dimensional superconductors and superconducting quantum devices.