Nearly perfect Fermi surface nesting in hole-doped La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ enables bulk superconductivity without pressure or strain

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that hole doping in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ induces nearly perfect Fermi surface nesting, enabling bulk superconductivity at ambient pressure without the need for external pressure or strain.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework showing how hole doping creates ideal nesting conditions, leading to bulk superconductivity in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ without external pressure.

Findings

Hole doping induces a Ni-$d_{3z^2-r^2}$ pocket on the Fermi surface.

The $ extbf{Q} = ( extpi, extpi)$ nesting vector enhances spin fluctuations.

Superconductivity becomes observable at optimal doping near x=0.4.

Abstract

The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates has drawn great attention. However, unlike cuprates and iron-based superconductors, Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates exhibit superconductivity either under high pressure in bulk samples or under compressive strain in thin films. Genuine bulk superconductivity under ambient pressure has remained elusive in these materials, precluding key measurements such as specific heat and superfluid density. In this work, we combine density-functional-theory, dynamical-mean-field-theory, and random-phase-approximation to solve the superconducting gap equation for bulk hole-doped bilayer nickelate La$_{3-x}$Sr$_x$Ni$_2$O$_7$ at ambient pressure. We find that hole doping induces a Ni-$d_{3z^2-r^2}$-derived $\gamma$ pocket on the Fermi surface, and serves as a tuning parameter for both its size and \textit{shape}. As $x$ approaches 0.4, the $\gamma$ pocket evolves from circular to diamond-shaped and expands to span half of the Brillouin zone, resulting in nearly perfect Fermi surface nesting with the optimal nesting vector $\textbf{Q} = (\pi, \pi)$. This, in turn, strongly enhances antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations and substantially increases the leading superconducting eigenvalue to a level at which superconductivity becomes experimentally observable. Our work provides both a robust mechanism and an experimentally feasible route to inducing the long-sought bulk superconductivity in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ without pressure or strain.