Possible High-Temperature Superconductivity Driven by Perpendicular Electric Field in the La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ Single-Bilayer Film at Ambient Pressure

Zhi-Yan Shao, Jia-Heng Ji, Congjun Wu, Dao-Xin Yao, Fan Yang

Published 2024-11-20Version 1

The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) in pressurized La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ has aroused a surge in the exploration of HTSC in the multilayer nickelates. Presently, while HTSC is only found in pressurized circumstance, most of the experimental detections are performed at ambient pressure (AP) due to technical problems. Here we focus on the single-bilayer film of La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ at AP, and propose that an imposed strong perpendicular electric field can strongly enhance its superconducting $T_c$. The reasons lies as follow. Under strong electric field, the layer with lower potential energy will accept electrons flowing from the other layer to fill in the Ni-$3d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals in this layer, as the nearly half-filled Ni-$3d_{z^2}$ orbital in this layer cannot accommodate more electrons. With the enhancement of the filling fraction in the $3d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals in this layer, the interlayer s-wave pairing will be subjected to the pair-breaking effect and be suppressed, but the intralayer d-wave pairing in this layer is promptly and strongly enhanced, which mimics the cuprates. Our combined simplified one-orbital study and comprehensive two-orbital one under mean-field treatment consistently verify this idea and yield that an imposed voltage of about $0.1\sim0.2$ volt between the two layers is enough to get the HTSC at AP. Our results appeal for experimental verification.