TY - JOUR
T1 - Pressure-Induced Superconductivity in the Wide-Band-Gap Semiconductor Cu2Br2Se6with a Robust Framework
AU - Cai, Weizhao
AU - Lin, Wenwen
AU - Yan, Yan
AU - Hilleke, Katerina P.
AU - Coles, Jared
AU - Bao, Jin Ke
AU - Xu, Jingui
AU - Zhang, Dongzhou
AU - Chung, Duck Young
AU - Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.
AU - Zurek, Eva
AU - Deemyad, Shanti
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge Dr. Sergy Tkachev for assistance with helium loading and Dr. Jesse Smith for experimental support and Tushar Bhowmick, Mahé Lezoualc’h, Jordan Lybarger, and Elizabeth Mulvey for their help with high-pressure X-ray data collection. The high-pressure single crystal X-ray diffraction data and powder X-ray diffraction data were collected at 13-BM-C of GeoSoilEnviroCARS (The University of Chicago, Sector 13) and at 16-ID-B of HPCAT (Sector 16), Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory, respectively. GeoSoilEnviroCARS was supported by the National Science Foundation-Earth Sciences (EAR-1634415) and Department of Energy-GeoSciences (DE-FG02-94ER14466). HPCAT operations were supported by DOE-NNSA’s Office of Experimental Sciences. Use of the COMPRES-GSECARS gas loading system and PX2 was supported by COMPRES under NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR-1661511 and by GSECARS through NSF grant EAR-1634415 and DOE grant DE-FG02-94ER14466. Work at Argonne (sample preparation, characterization, and crystal growth) was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division. Use of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences under Award DE-SC0020340 (E.Z., Y.Y., and S.D.). K.H. is thankful to the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, through the Capital-DOE Alliance Center under Cooperative Agreement DE-NA0003858 for financial support. E.Z., Y.Y., and K.H. acknowledge computational support from the Center for Computational Research (CCR) at SUNY Buffalo. J.C. acknowledges research travel funds from University of Utah Office of Undergraduate Research.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/7/28
Y1 - 2020/7/28
N2 - We report pressure-induced superconductivity in a ternary and nonmagnetic Cu-containing semiconductor, Cu2Br2Se6, with a wide band gap of 1.89 eV, in which the Cu and Br atoms generate infinite 21 helical chains along the c-axis and are linked by the cyclohexane-like Se6 rings to form a three-dimensional framework. We find that this framework is remarkably robust under compression, and the ambient-pressure phase survives at least to our experimental limit of 32.1 GPa. Concurrent semiconductor-to-metal transition and superconductivity are observed above 21.0 GPa. The superconducting temperature monotonically increases from 4.0 to 6.7 K at 40.0 GPa. First-principles calculations show that the emergence of superconductivity is associated with the formation of weak multicentered bonds that involve the increase in coordination of the Cu atoms and a subset of the Se atoms. The observation of superconductivity in this type of nonmagnetic transition-metal-based material will inspire the exploration of related new superconductors under pressure.
AB - We report pressure-induced superconductivity in a ternary and nonmagnetic Cu-containing semiconductor, Cu2Br2Se6, with a wide band gap of 1.89 eV, in which the Cu and Br atoms generate infinite 21 helical chains along the c-axis and are linked by the cyclohexane-like Se6 rings to form a three-dimensional framework. We find that this framework is remarkably robust under compression, and the ambient-pressure phase survives at least to our experimental limit of 32.1 GPa. Concurrent semiconductor-to-metal transition and superconductivity are observed above 21.0 GPa. The superconducting temperature monotonically increases from 4.0 to 6.7 K at 40.0 GPa. First-principles calculations show that the emergence of superconductivity is associated with the formation of weak multicentered bonds that involve the increase in coordination of the Cu atoms and a subset of the Se atoms. The observation of superconductivity in this type of nonmagnetic transition-metal-based material will inspire the exploration of related new superconductors under pressure.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c02151
DO - 10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c02151
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089849419
VL - 32
SP - 6237
EP - 6246
JO - Chemistry of Materials
JF - Chemistry of Materials
SN - 0897-4756
IS - 14
ER -