Superconductivity in high-pressure SiH4

A combination of static and dynamical first-principles electronic calculations of silane, SiH4, at high pressure has revealed a novel monoclinic structure with C2/ c symmetry. This high-pressure phase is metallic and composed of layers of SiH4 bridged by H bonds. Perturbative linear response calculations at 90 and 125GPa predict large electron-phonon couplings yielding an electron-phonon coupling parameter lambda close to 0.9. The application of McMillan equation gives a superconducting critical temperature (T-c) between 45 and 55K. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2007.