Electric-field-driven hole carriers and superconductivity in diamond

First-principles calculations of electric-field-driven superconductivity at the hydrogenated diamond (110) surface are presented. While the hydrogens on the surface effectively maintain the intrinsic sp3 covalent nature of diamond, the hole carriers induced by an external negative electric field (E-field) lead to a metallic surface region. Importantly, the concentration of hole carriers, confined within a few carbon layers of thickness ∼5-10 Å below the surface, exceeds 1021 cm^-3, which is larger than the critical hole density responsible for superconductivity in the boron-doped diamond, while the calculated electron-phonon coupling constants are comparable in magnitude, suggesting the possibility of superconductivity with enhanced critical field.