Feasible Route to High-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Hydride Superconductivity

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.132.166001
• Publication Date: 2024-04-15T14:05:04Z
• Authors: Kapildeb Dolui; Lewis J. Conway; Christoph Heil; Timothy A. Strobel; Rohit P. Prasankumar; Chris J. Pickard
• Keywords: Ambient pressure; Room-temperature superconductor; Zero temperature

A key challenge in materials discovery is to find high-temperature superconductors. Hydrogen and hydride have long been considered promising displaying conventional phonon-mediated superconductivity. However, the high pressures required stabilize these restricted their application. Here, we present results from high-throughput computation, considering a wide range of high-symmetry ternary hydrides across periodic table at ambient pressure. This large composition space then reduced by thermodynamic, dynamic, magnetic stability before direct estimations superconducting critical temperature. approach has revealed metastable ambient-pressure superconductor, Mg_{2}IrH_{6}, with predicted temperature 160 K, comparable highest cuprates. We propose synthesis route via structurally related insulator, Mg_{2}IrH_{7}, which thermodynamically stable above 15 GPa, discuss potential challenges doing so.