Session P39: Focus Session: Superconductivity-Theory and Computation (Mainly First Principles)

11:15 AM–2:03 PM, Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Baltimore Convention Center Room: 342

Sponsoring Units: DCOMP DCMP
Chair: Ole Andersen, Max Planck Institute

Abstract ID: BAPS.2006.MAR.P39.5

Abstract: P39.00005 : Superconductivity and Lattice Instability in Compressed Lithium from Fermi Surface Hot Spots

12:27 PM–12:39 PM

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Authors:

  Deepa Kasinathan
  Jan Kunes
  Richard Scalletar
  Warren Pickett
    (University of California, Davis)

  Amy Lazicki
  Choong-Shik Yoo
    (Lawrence Livermore National Labratory, Livermore, CA)

  Helge Rosner
    (Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany)

Lithium, a simple metal not superconducting above 5mK at ambient pressure, becomes a 20 K superconductor at 50 GPa. This high T$_c$ is shown to arise from critical (formally divergent) electron-phonon coupling to the transverse phonon branch along intersections of Kohn anomaly surfaces with the Fermi surface. First principles linear response calculations of the phonon spectrum and spectral function $\alpha^2 F(\omega)$ reveal (harmonic) instability already at 25 GPa. Our results imply that the fcc phase is anharmonically stabilized in the 25-38 GPa range.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2006.MAR.P39.5