Superconductivity in electron-doped arsenene**Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0302901), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11474331, 11404383, and 11474004), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant No. LY17A040005), and the K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.

Abstract

Based on the first-principles density functional theory electronic structure calculation, we investigate the possible phonon-mediated superconductivity in arsenene, a two-dimensional buckled arsenic atomic sheet, under electron doping. We find that the strong superconducting pairing interaction results mainly from the pz-like electrons of arsenic atoms and the A1 phonon mode around the K point, and the superconducting transition temperature can be as high as 30.8 K in the arsenene with 0.2 doped electrons per unit cell and 12%-applied biaxial tensile strain. This transition temperature is about ten times higher than that in the bulk arsenic under high pressure. It is also the highest transition temperature that is predicted for electron-doped two-dimensional elemental superconductors, including graphene, silicene, phosphorene, and borophene.