Electron-Phonon mechanism for Superconductivity in Na$_{0.35}$CoO$_2$: Valence-Band Suhl-Kondo effect Driven by Shear Phonons

TL;DR

This paper proposes a valence-band Suhl-Kondo mechanism driven by shear phonons as a key to understanding superconductivity in Na$_{0.35}$CoO$_2$, explaining both the transition temperature enhancement and ARPES-observed band dispersion features.

Contribution

It introduces the shear phonon-driven valence-band Suhl-Kondo mechanism as a novel explanation for superconductivity in Na$_{0.35}$CoO$_2$.

Findings

Superconductivity is enhanced when $e_g'$-valence bands are near the Fermi level.

Shear phonons facilitate interband hopping of Cooper pairs, increasing $T_c$.

The mechanism explains the ARPES-observed band dispersion kink and mass enhancement.

Abstract

To study the possible mechanism of superconductivity in Na$_{0.35}$CoO$_2$, we examine the interaction between all the relevant optical phonons (breathing and shear phonons) and $t_{2g}(a_{1g}+e_g')$-electrons of Co-ions, and study the transition temperature for a s-wave superconductivity. The obtained $T_{\rm c}$ is very low when the $e_g'$-valence-bands are far below the Fermi level. However, $T_{\rm c}$ is strongly enhanced when the top of the $e_g'$-valence-bands is close to the Fermi level (say -50meV), thanks to interband hopping of Cooper pairs caused by shear phonons. This ``valence-band Suhl-Kondo mechanism'' due to shear phonons is significant to understand the superconductivity in Na$_{0.35}$CoO$_2$. By the same mechanism, the kink structure of the band-dispersion observed by ARPES, which indicates the strong mass-enhancement ($m^\ast/m\sim3$) due to optical phonons, is also explained.