Excitonic insulator to superconductor phase transition in ultra-compressed helium

Cong Liu, Ion Errea, Chi Ding, Chris Pickard, Lewis J. Conway, Bartomeu Monserrat, Yue-Wen Fang, Qing Lu, Jian Sun (), Jordi Boronat and Claudio Cazorla ()
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Cong Liu: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Ion Errea: University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
Chi Ding: Nanjing University
Chris Pickard: University of Cambridge
Lewis J. Conway: University of Cambridge
Bartomeu Monserrat: University of Cambridge
Yue-Wen Fang: University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
Qing Lu: Nanjing University
Jian Sun: Nanjing University
Jordi Boronat: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Claudio Cazorla: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Helium, the second most abundant element in the universe, exhibits an extremely large electronic band gap of about 20 eV at ambient pressures. While the metallization pressure of helium has been accurately determined, thus far little attention has been paid to the specific mechanisms driving the band-gap closure and electronic properties of this quantum crystal in the terapascal regime (1 TPa = 10 Mbar). Here, we employ density functional theory and many-body perturbation calculations to fill up this knowledge gap. It is found that prior to reaching metallicity helium becomes an excitonic insulator (EI), an exotic state of matter in which electrostatically bound electron-hole pairs may form spontaneously. Furthermore, we predict metallic helium to be a superconductor with a critical temperature of ≈ 20 K just above its metallization pressure and of ≈ 70 K at 100 TPa. These unforeseen phenomena may be critical for improving our fundamental understanding and modeling of celestial bodies.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40240-x

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