Discovery of superconductivity in technetium-borides at moderate pressures

Abstract

Advances in theoretical calculations boosted the searches for high temperature superconductors, such as sulfur hydrides and rare-earth polyhydrides. However, the required extremely high pressures for stabilizing these superconductors handicapped further implementations. Based upon thorough structural searches, we identified series of unprecedented superconducting technetium-borides at moderate pressures, including TcB (P6${}_3$/mmc) with superconducting transition temperature $T_{\text{c}}$ = 20.2 K at ambient pressure and TcB${}_2$ (P6/mmm) with $T_{\text{c}}$ = 23.1 K at 20 GPa. Superconductivity in these technetium-borides mainly originates from the coupling between the low frequency vibrations of technetium-atoms and the dominant technetium-4d electrons at the Fermi level. Our works therefore present a fresh group in the family of superconducting borides, whose diversified crystal structures suggest rich possibilities in discovery of other superconducting transition-metal-borides.

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