Possible superconductivity in very thin magnesium films
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866909529229230080 |
|---|---|
| author | Ummarino, Giovanni Alberto Zaccone, Alessio |
| author_facet | Ummarino, Giovanni Alberto Zaccone, Alessio |
| contents | It is known that noble metals such as gold, silver and copper are not supercon- 1 ductors, so as magnesium. This is due to the weakness of the electron-phonon interaction 2 which makes them excellent conductors but not superconductors. As it has recently been 3 shown for gold, silver and copper, even for magnesium it is possible that in very particular 4 situations superconductivity may occur. Quantum confinement in thin films has been 5 consistently shown to induce a significant enhancement of the superconducting critical 6 temperature in several superconductors. It is therefore an important fundamental question 7 whether ultra-thin film confinement may induce observable superconductivity in non- 8 superconducting metals such as magnesium. We study this problem using a generalization, 9 in the Eliashberg framework, of a BCS theory of superconductivity in good metals under 10 thin-film confinement. By numerically solving these new Eliashberg-type equations, we 11 find the dependence of the superconducting critical temperature on the film thickness, L. 12 This parameter-free theory predicts superconductivity in very thin magnesium films. We 13 demonstrate that this is a fine-tuning problem where the thickness must assume a very 14 precise value, close to half a nanometer. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_05184 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Possible superconductivity in very thin magnesium films Ummarino, Giovanni Alberto Zaccone, Alessio Superconductivity It is known that noble metals such as gold, silver and copper are not supercon- 1 ductors, so as magnesium. This is due to the weakness of the electron-phonon interaction 2 which makes them excellent conductors but not superconductors. As it has recently been 3 shown for gold, silver and copper, even for magnesium it is possible that in very particular 4 situations superconductivity may occur. Quantum confinement in thin films has been 5 consistently shown to induce a significant enhancement of the superconducting critical 6 temperature in several superconductors. It is therefore an important fundamental question 7 whether ultra-thin film confinement may induce observable superconductivity in non- 8 superconducting metals such as magnesium. We study this problem using a generalization, 9 in the Eliashberg framework, of a BCS theory of superconductivity in good metals under 10 thin-film confinement. By numerically solving these new Eliashberg-type equations, we 11 find the dependence of the superconducting critical temperature on the film thickness, L. 12 This parameter-free theory predicts superconductivity in very thin magnesium films. We 13 demonstrate that this is a fine-tuning problem where the thickness must assume a very 14 precise value, close to half a nanometer. |
| title | Possible superconductivity in very thin magnesium films |
| topic | Superconductivity |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.05184 |