A large modulation of electron-phonon coupling and an emergent superconducting dome in doped strong ferroelectrics

Jiaji Ma, Ruihan Yang and Hanghui Chen ()
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Jiaji Ma: NYU Shanghai
Ruihan Yang: NYU Shanghai
Hanghui Chen: NYU Shanghai

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract We use first-principles methods to study doped strong ferroelectrics (taking BaTiO3 as a prototype). Here, we find a strong coupling between itinerant electrons and soft polar phonons in doped BaTiO3, contrary to Anderson/Blount’s weakly coupled electron mechanism for "ferroelectric-like metals”. As a consequence, across a polar-to-centrosymmetric phase transition in doped BaTiO3, the total electron-phonon coupling is increased to about 0.6 around the critical concentration, which is sufficient to induce phonon-mediated superconductivity of about 2 K. Lowering the crystal symmetry of doped BaTiO3 by imposing epitaxial strain can further increase the superconducting temperature via a sizable coupling between itinerant electrons and acoustic phonons. Our work demonstrates a viable approach to modulating electron-phonon coupling and inducing phonon-mediated superconductivity in doped strong ferroelectrics and potentially in polar metals. Our results also show that the weakly coupled electron mechanism for "ferroelectric-like metals” is not necessarily present in doped strong ferroelectrics.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22541-1

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