Superconductivity in room-temperature stable electride and high-pressure phases of alkali metals

Abstract

S-band metals such as alkali and alkaline earth metals do not undergo a superconducting transition (SCT) at ambient pressure, but their high-pressure phases do. By contrast, room-temperature stable electride [Ca24Al28O64]4+ ·4e- (C12A7:e-) in which anionic electrons in the crystallographic sub-nanometer-size cages have high s-character exhibits SCT at 0.2-0.4K at ambient pressure. In this paper, we report that crystal and electronic structures of C12A7:e- are close to those of the high-pressure superconducting phase of alkali and alkaline earth metals and the SCT of both materials is induced when electron nature at Fermi energy (EF) switches from s- to sd-hybridized state.