Undamped plasmon modes and enhanced superconductivity in metal diborides

oleh: Han Gao, Chao Ding, Wenhui Geng, Xikui Ma, Yangyang Li, Mingwen Zhao

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: IOP Publishing 2021-01-01

Deskripsi

The anisotropic geometric and electronic structures of metal diborides ( M B _2 ) leads to many unusual optical and electronic properties. Here, we present a first-principles study on the low-energy collective electronic excitations and the superconducting performance of the M B _2 ( M = Be, Mg, Al, and Ca). We demonstrate the undamped cosine-like plasmon modes and the sine-like acoustic plasmons in these metal diborides. Interestingly, the energy of the acoustic plasmons shows a positive correlation with the E _2 _g phonon modes which are negatively correlated with the superconducting transition temperature ( T _c ) of the M B _2 materials. Moreover, hole doping can lower the energy of the acoustic plasmons and enhance the T _c of CaB _2 up to 48.2 K. Our work offers a theoretical guidance to regulate the plasmonic properties, as well as a new predictive factor for superconductivity.