Superconductivity in heavily boron-doped carbon materials

ORAL

Abstract

We investigate the superconducting properties of heavily boron-doped carbon materials composed of sp3 hybridized atoms: cubic diamond, hexagonal diamond, and body centered tetragonal C4 (bct C4). We find that a high density of states (DOS) at the Fermi energy result in a high superconducting transition temperature (Tc) in all three materials. The high DOS is particularly realized when boron dopants are not placed at nearest neighbor sites. A Tc above 60 K can be obtained for cubic diamond, although other allotropes can exhibit a Tc of 40-50 K at 25 % boron-doping. We also discuss superconductivity in amorphous carbon.

*YS and JRC acknowledge DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-06ER46286. Computational resources are provided in part by NERSC and TACC. MLC acknowledges NSF Grant No. DMR-1508412 and Theory of Materials, LBNL, DoE Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

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Presenters

  • Yuki Sakai

    • University of Texas at Austin
    • Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, University of Texas at Austin

Authors

  • Yuki Sakai

    • University of Texas at Austin
    • Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, University of Texas at Austin

  • James Chelikowsky

    • University of Texas at Austin
    • Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin

  • Marvin L Cohen

    • University of California, Berkeley
    • Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley