Condensed Matter Seminars

Due to the low atomic mass and high electron-phonon coupling strength in hydrogen-rich materials, hydride compounds under extremely high pressures are most promising in the search of high-Tc superconductors. First-principles-based computational search has become extremely important not only in predicting new materials but also in guiding high-pressure experimental measurements. In this work, we have developed a super-efficient and fast method for searching high-T hydride superconductors. We introduce new "metrics" that are strongly correlated to strong electron-phonon coupling and T but it is much faster to calculate them. Using our new method, we have searched more than 100,000 binary hydride systems and discovered several new high-T superconductors. Among them, we report our prediction of high-temperature superconductivity at relatively low pressure in a novel binary metal hydride which may break the current record. A detailed mechanism of the superconductivity, phonons, and electron-phonon coupling, anharmonicity, as well as the abnormal T -pressure dependence, will be also discussed.