High-temperature superconductivity induced by the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger electron-phonon coupling

The experimental quest for high-temperature and room-temperature superconductivity (SC) at ambient pressure has been a long-standing research theme in physics. It has also been desired to construct reliable microscopic mechanisms that may achieve high-temperature SC. Here, we systematically explore SC in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) electron-phonon coupling (EPC) models by performing numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Our results reliably showed that the superconducting ${T}_{c}$ of the SSH models is high, remarkably higher than those in the Holstein models, particularly in the strong EPC regime. This is mainly because SSH phonons can not only induce strong pairing between electrons but also help the phase coherence of Cooper pairs, thus realizing higher ${T}_{c}$. As the mechanism of the higher ${T}_{c}$ of the SSH models could be potentially relevant to realistic materials, it paves a promising way to find higher-temperature SC in the future.