Ab-initio theory of superconductivity - II: Applications to elemental metals

TL;DR

This paper applies a density functional theory for superconductors to elemental metals, accurately predicting transition temperatures, gaps, and thermodynamic properties, demonstrating the feasibility of first-principles predictions for conventional superconductivity.

Contribution

It extends the ab-initio theory of superconductivity to real materials, achieving precise predictions of superconducting properties without empirical parameters.

Findings

Excellent agreement with experimental transition temperatures

Accurate prediction of superconducting gaps at zero temperature

Reliable modeling of thermodynamic properties like specific heat

Abstract

The density functional theory for superconductors developed in the preceding article [cond-mat/0408685] is applied to the calculation of superconducting properties of several elemental metals. In particular, we present results for the transition temperature, for the gap at zero temperature, and for thermodynamic properties like the specific heat. We obtain an unprecedented agreement with experimental results. Superconductors both with strong and weak electron-phonon coupling are equally well described. This demonstrates that, as far as conventional superconductivity is concerned, the first-principles prediction of superconducting properties is feasible.