Aromatic superconductors: Electron-phonon coupling and electronic correlations
Authors: Zhong Guo-Hua , Lin Hai-Qing ,   Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China,   School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Published: December 2023

<sec>Aromatic superconductors are a new type of high-temperature superconductor discovered in recent years. The superconducting transition temperature (<i>T</i><sub>c</sub>) increases with the size of aromatic molecule increasing, which has attracted widespread attention of experimental and theoretical researchers. The driving mechanism for such a superconductivity, whether it is dominated by electron-phonon coupling or electronic correlation effects, has aroused great interest of many research groups. This paper briefly introduces the rich superconducting phenomena of metal doped aromatic compounds. From the perspectives of electron-phonon coupling or electronic correlations, the superconductivity of aromatic compounds is discussed, which is helpful in exploring aromatic superconductors with higher <i>T</i><sub>c</sub>. The challenges currently faced in the field are also introduced.</sec><sec>The rest of this paper is organized as follows. We first introduce the existence of abundant superconducting phases in the experiment of metal doped aromatic compounds. Different doping concentrations of metal cause superconducting phases with different <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> values, especially the highest <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> value of the superconducting phase increases with the size of aromatic molecule increasing. Theoretical prediction shows that all aromatic hydrocarbon superconductors have a low-<i>T</i><sub>c</sub> superconducting phase in a range of 5–7 K, which is a common feature. For systems with few benzene rings (such as benzene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene crystals), only low-<i>T</i><sub>c</sub> phase of 5–7 K exists, while in systems with multiple benzene rings (such as picene, dibenzopentacene, and others with the number of benzene rings more than 5), there are multiple superconducting phases; the highest <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> in long-benzene-ring system depends not only on the number of benzene rings, but also on the chain size of organic molecule. Further research indicates that low-<i>T</i><sub>c</sub> phase is induced by doping about 2 electrons and has good stability, while high-<i>T</i><sub>c</sub> phase results from doping 3 electrons and has slightly poorer stability.</sec><sec>Then, the electron-phonon coupling characteristics and electron-electron exchange correlation effects in aromatic compound superconductors are discussed. For low-<i>T</i><sub>c</sub> phases, the values of electronic density of states at the Fermi level are comparable to each other and relatively low, resulting in weak electron-phonon interactions. However, the <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> value predicted by this electron-phonon coupling mechanism is in good agreement with experimental value, indicating that the electron-phonon coupling is sufficient to describe the superconductivity of low-<i>T</i><sub>c</sub> phases. For high-<i>T</i><sub>c</sub> phases, the big values of electron density of states at the Fermi level imply strong electron-phonon interactions, and this electron-phonon coupling increases with the size of organic molecule increasing. However, the <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> value predicted only by the electron-phonon mechanism is lower than the experimental value. The study of electron-electron exchange correlation effect of aromatic compounds shows that the electronic correlation effect increases with the size of aromatic molecule increasing, which is consistent with the increase of <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> maximum value with the size of aromatic molecule increasing in a long-benzene-ring system. This indicates that the superconductivity of high<i>-T</i><sub>c</sub> phase is driven by both the electron-phonon mechanism and the electronic correlation effect. This understanding of superconductivity is significant for exploring and discovering aromatic superconductors with higher transition temperatures.</sec><sec>Finally, comprehensive physical models and methods are required in this paper in order to gain a thorough understanding of the superconductivity of aromatic compound.</sec>