Computational Search for Superconducting Chromium Oxides: A Multi-Stage Heuristic Pipeline Identifies a Stable Magnetically-Mediated Superconducting Basin in Oxygen-Deficient Cr₁₋δOδ with Dilute Transition-Metal Dopants

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Auteur principal: Fenning, Nicholas Brian
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Publié: Zenodo 2026
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author Fenning, Nicholas Brian
author_facet Fenning, Nicholas Brian
contents <p>We report the computational identification of a robust superconducting candidate basin in oxygen-deficient chromium oxides of approximate composition Cr₀.₇₇–0.⁸⁸ O₀.₁₂–0.₁₆ doped with 1–2% transition-metal or rare-earth substituents. Using a four-stage heuristic refinement pipeline — broad oxide brute-force search, motif-level precision refinement, micro-refinement, and per-dopant isolation — applied across 7,500 candidate compositions drawn from a search space of hundreds of thousands of evaluations, we find that this compositional basin consistently scores among the highest-ranked candidates across all refinement stages. The dominant predicted mechanism is magnetic/spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity, not conventional phonon pairing: the electron-phonon coupling λ ≈ 0.43 yields a bare Allen-Dynes phonon Tc of approximately 1.3 K, while magnetic enhancement factors calibrated against analogous spin-fluctuation superconductors yield a corrected estimate of 2.6–10.3 K, with a central value near 5 K. Four transition-metal dopants (Ni, Co, Fe, Mn) and seven rare-earth dopants produce near-equivalent performance, with the compositional optimum tightly constrained to Cr ≈00.87, O ≈00.12, dopant ≈0.01–0.02. Literature review confirms that (i) CrO₂ carries experimentally verified spin-triplet supercurrents, (ii) Co, Ni, and Mn doping of Cr₂O₃ thin films produces room-temperature ferromagnetism, and (iii) oxygen-deficient Cr-rich compositions lie in a metallic conduction regime. No prior systematic superconductivity search in this composition window is found in the literature. DFT input files for the top 50 candidates are deposited alongside this preprint. Experimental verification via thin-film deposition or high-pressure synthesis is feasible with standard cryogenics laboratory equipment.</p>
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spellingShingle Computational Search for Superconducting Chromium Oxides: A Multi-Stage Heuristic Pipeline Identifies a Stable Magnetically-Mediated Superconducting Basin in Oxygen-Deficient Cr₁₋δOδ with Dilute Transition-Metal Dopants
Fenning, Nicholas Brian
chromium oxide
superconductivity
oxygen-deficient oxide
spin-fluctuation superconductivity
magnetic mechanism
computational materials discovery
heuristic search
Allen-Dynes equation
electron-phonon coupling
transition metal oxide
Cr2O3
corundum structure
dopant screening
DFT validation
VASP
Quantum ESPRESSO
magnetically mediated pairing
iron pnictide analogy
spin-triplet
Stoner criterion
oxide superconductor
independent research
AI-assisted discovery
multi-stage refinement pipeline
Eliashberg correction
independent research
<p>We report the computational identification of a robust superconducting candidate basin in oxygen-deficient chromium oxides of approximate composition Cr₀.₇₇–0.⁸⁸ O₀.₁₂–0.₁₆ doped with 1–2% transition-metal or rare-earth substituents. Using a four-stage heuristic refinement pipeline — broad oxide brute-force search, motif-level precision refinement, micro-refinement, and per-dopant isolation — applied across 7,500 candidate compositions drawn from a search space of hundreds of thousands of evaluations, we find that this compositional basin consistently scores among the highest-ranked candidates across all refinement stages. The dominant predicted mechanism is magnetic/spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity, not conventional phonon pairing: the electron-phonon coupling λ ≈ 0.43 yields a bare Allen-Dynes phonon Tc of approximately 1.3 K, while magnetic enhancement factors calibrated against analogous spin-fluctuation superconductors yield a corrected estimate of 2.6–10.3 K, with a central value near 5 K. Four transition-metal dopants (Ni, Co, Fe, Mn) and seven rare-earth dopants produce near-equivalent performance, with the compositional optimum tightly constrained to Cr ≈00.87, O ≈00.12, dopant ≈0.01–0.02. Literature review confirms that (i) CrO₂ carries experimentally verified spin-triplet supercurrents, (ii) Co, Ni, and Mn doping of Cr₂O₃ thin films produces room-temperature ferromagnetism, and (iii) oxygen-deficient Cr-rich compositions lie in a metallic conduction regime. No prior systematic superconductivity search in this composition window is found in the literature. DFT input files for the top 50 candidates are deposited alongside this preprint. Experimental verification via thin-film deposition or high-pressure synthesis is feasible with standard cryogenics laboratory equipment.</p>
title Computational Search for Superconducting Chromium Oxides: A Multi-Stage Heuristic Pipeline Identifies a Stable Magnetically-Mediated Superconducting Basin in Oxygen-Deficient Cr₁₋δOδ with Dilute Transition-Metal Dopants
topic chromium oxide
superconductivity
oxygen-deficient oxide
spin-fluctuation superconductivity
magnetic mechanism
computational materials discovery
heuristic search
Allen-Dynes equation
electron-phonon coupling
transition metal oxide
Cr2O3
corundum structure
dopant screening
DFT validation
VASP
Quantum ESPRESSO
magnetically mediated pairing
iron pnictide analogy
spin-triplet
Stoner criterion
oxide superconductor
independent research
AI-assisted discovery
multi-stage refinement pipeline
Eliashberg correction
independent research
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19062272