$Ab$ $initio$ material design of Ag-based oxides for high-$T_c$ superconductor

Abstract

We propose silver-based oxides with layered perovskite structure as candidates of exhibiting intriguing feature of strongly correlated electrons. The compounds show unique covalence between Ag d and O p orbitals with the strong electron correlation of their antibonding orbital similar to the copper oxide high-temperature superconductors, but stronger covalency and slightly smaller correlation strength. We examine $A_2$AgO${}_2{X}_2$ with $A$ =Sr and Ba and $X$ =F, I and Cl in detail. Among them, Sr${}_2$AgO${}_2$F${}_2$ has the largest effective onsite Coulomb repulsion and shows an antiferromagnetic insulating ground state, which competes with correlated metals. It offers features both similar and distinct from the copper oxides, and paves a new route. The possibility of superconductivity in doped systems is discussed.

25 pages, 21 figures, and 17 tables