Electronic properties of rocksalt copper monoxide: a proxy structure for high temperature superconductivity

Abstract

Cubic rocksalt copper monoxide, in contrast to its lighter transition metal neighbours, does not exist in nature nor has it yet been successfully synthesized. Nonetheless, its numerical study as a structurally much simpler proxy for the layered cuprate perovskites may prove useful in probing the source of high temperature superconductivity in the latter family of compounds. Here we report such a study employing density functional theory (DFT) abetted by the local density approximation including cation on-site Hubbard interactions (LDA+U). Rather surprisingly, we find that unlike oxides of the light transition metals, cubic CuO remains metallic for all physically reasonable values of U and does not result in a Mott- Hubbard induced charge transfer insulator as might be expected, and, in fact, displays a Fermi surface with clearly nesting tendencies. Preliminary calculations of the net dimensionless electron-phonon coupling constant, λ, yield values in the range 0.6 - 0.7 similar to those found for the superconducting fullerenes and magnesium diboride. On the other hand, we do find as we gradually introduce a tetragonal distortion away from pure cubic symmetry that a charge- transfer insulator emerges for values of U ∼ 5 eV and c/a ∼ 1.3 in agreement with recent experimental data on forced-epitaxial growth of 2-4 ML thick films of tetragonal rocksalt CuO. We preliminarily conclude from these computational studies that high temperature superconductivity in the copper oxide compounds is at least initially mediated by Jahn-Teller driven electron-phonon coupling as originally suggested by Bednorz and Mueller.