Zhang Kai, Xu Ming, Li Nana, Xu Meng, Zhang Qian, Greenberg Eran, Prakapenka Vitali B, Chen Yu-Sheng, Wuttig Matthias, Mao Ho-Kwang, Yang Wenge
Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of China.
Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
Phys Rev Lett. 2021 Sep 17;127(12):127002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.127002.
Superconductivity and Anderson localization represent two extreme cases of electronic behavior in solids. Surprisingly, these two competing scenarios can occur in the same quantum system, e.g., in an amorphous superconductor. Although the disorder-driven quantum phase transition has attracted much attention, its structural origins remain elusive. Here, we discovered an unambiguous correlation between superconductivity and density in amorphous Sb_{2}Se_{3} at high pressure. Superconductivity first emerges in the high-density amorphous (HDA) phase at about 24 GPa, where the density of glass unexpectedly exceeds its crystalline counterpart, and then shows an enhanced critical temperature when pressure induces crystallization at 51 GPa. Ab initio simulations reveal that the bcc-like local geometry motifs form in the HDA phase, arising from distinct "metavalent bonds." Our results demonstrate that HDA phase is critical for the incipient superconductive behavior.
超导性和安德森局域化代表了固体中电子行为的两种极端情况。令人惊讶的是,这两种相互竞争的情况可以出现在同一个量子系统中,例如在非晶态超导体中。尽管无序驱动的量子相变引起了广泛关注,但其结构起源仍然难以捉摸。在这里,我们发现了高压下非晶态Sb₂Se₃中超导性与密度之间明确的相关性。超导性首先在约24吉帕的高密度非晶(HDA)相中出现,此时玻璃的密度意外超过其晶体对应物,然后在51吉帕压力诱导结晶时显示出临界温度的升高。从头算模拟表明,HDA相中形成了类似体心立方的局部几何结构单元,这源于独特的“金属价键”。我们的结果表明,HDA相对初始超导行为至关重要。