Theoretical materials design of high temperature superconductors is a true Holy Grail of condensed matter physics. To achieve this goal, a predictive method to calculate superconducting transition temperatures is highly desired. We expand the frontier of density functional theory, and formulated a new non-empirical scheme which is applicable not only for conventional superconductors mediated by phonons, but also unconventional superconductors mediated by plasmons. We applied the new method to a typical plasmon-assisted superconductor, elemental lithium under high pressures, and obtained an excellent agreement between theory and experiment.
Researcher Information
JST PRESTO
Research Area: "New Materials Science and Element Strategy",
Research Theme: "Theoretical materials design of next-generation devices exploiting non-bulk environments"
Journal Information
Ryosuke Akashi and Ryotaro Arita
“Development of Density-Functional Theory for a Plasmon-Assisted Superconducting State: Application to Lithium Under High Pressures&lrquo;
Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 057006 (2013)
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.057006
Contact
[About Research]
Ryotaro Arita, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo,
E-mail: 
[About Program]
Fumiharu Kimura, Masashi Furukawa, Hiromi Oaku
Green Innovation Group, Department of Innovation Research, JST
E-mail: 