Chemical versus physical pressure effects on the structure transition of bilayer nickelates

Abstract

The observation of high-Tc superconductivity (HTSC) in concomitant with pressure-induced orthorhombic-tetragonal structural transition in bilayer La3Ni2O7 has sparked hopes of achieving HTSC by stabilizing the tetragonal phase at ambient pressure. Chemical pressure, introduced by replacing La3+ with smaller rare-earth R3+ has been considered as a potential route. However, our experimental and theoretical investigation reveals that such substitutions, despite causing lattice contraction, actually produce stronger orthorhombic distortions, requiring higher pressures for the structural transition. A linear extrapolation of Pc versus the average size of A-site cations (), yields a putative critical value of c ≈ 1.23 Å for Pc ≈ 1 bar. The negative correlation between Pc and indicates that replacing La3+ with smaller R3+ ions is unlikely to reduce Pc to ambient pressure. Instead, substituting La3+ with larger cations like Sr2+ or Ba2+ might be a feasible approach. Our results provide guidance for realizing ambient-pressure HTSC in bilayer nickelates.