Abstract

It has been recently shown [I. Errea, B. Rousseau, and A. Bergara, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 165501 (2011)] that the phonons of the high-pressure simple cubic phase of calcium are stabilized by strong quantum anharmonic effects. This was obtained by a fully ab initio implementation of the self-consistent harmonic approximation including explicitly anharmonic coefficients up to fourth order. The renormalized anharmonic phonons make possible to estimate the superconducting transition temperature in this system, and a sharp agreement with experiments is found. In this work, this analysis is extended in order to study the effect of anharmonicity in the isotope effect. According to our calculations, despite the huge anharmonicity in the system, the isotope coefficient is predicted to be 0.45, close to the 0.5 value expected for a harmonic BCS superconductor.

Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.