Large impact of phonon lineshapes on the superconductivity of solid hydrogen

Dangić, Ðorđe; Monacelli, Lorenzo; Bianco, Raffaello; Mauri, Francesco; Errea, Ion (2024) Large impact of phonon lineshapes on the superconductivity of solid hydrogen. Communications Physics, 7 (1). ISSN 2399-3650

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Abstract

Phonon anharmonicity plays a crucial role in determining the stability and vibrational properties of high-pressure hydrides. Furthermore, strong anharmonicity can render phonon quasiparticle picture obsolete questioning standard approaches for modeling superconductivity in these material systems. In this work, we show the effects of non-Lorentzian phonon lineshapes on the superconductivity of high-pressure solid hydrogen. We calculate the superconducting critical temperature TC ab initio considering the full phonon spectral function and show that it overall enhances the TC estimate. The anharmonicity-induced phonon softening exhibited in spectral functions increases the estimate of the critical temperature, while the broadening of phonon lines due to phonon-phonon interaction decreases it. Our calculations also reveal that superconductivity emerges in hydrogen in the Cmca − 12 molecular phase VI at pressures between 450 and 500 GPa and explain the disagreement between the previous theoretical results and experiments.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	metallic hydrogen; transition; hydride
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics NATURAL SCIENCES > Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences
Divisions:	Theoretical Physics Division
Depositing User:	Ema Buhin Šaler
Date Deposited:	14 Apr 2026 11:42
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/11695
DOI:	10.1038/s42005-024-01643-4

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