Optimally Tensile Strained La3Ni2O7 Films as Candidate High-Temperature Superconductors on Designer Ba1-xSrxO (001) and SrO-SrTiO3 Substrates

Abstract

Recent experiments have observed superconductivity up to 48 K in La3Ni2O7-derived films under compressive strain imposed by the SrLaAlO4 substrate, while such films on the SrTiO3 substrate with tensile strain have failed to reach the superconducting state. Here we propose to broadly expand the choices of materials platforms to achieve high-Tc superconducting La3Ni2O7 films by proposing designer substrates of Ba1-xSrxO (x = 0 - 1) that allow to continuously tune the strain in the films from being tensile to compressive. Our systematic study of the structural and electronic reconstructions of the strained La3Ni2O7 bilayer film leads to the central finding that at the optimal tensile strain of ~2% (x ~0.25), the spectral weight of the Ni dz2 orbital is peaked right at the Fermi level, and its hybridization with the Ni dx2-y2 orbital is substantially enhanced. Consequently, the expected Tc should be unprecedentedly high, at least substantially higher than those achieved in the compressive regime. Furthermore, our detailed thickness-dependent energetic analyses show that such films can be stably grown for thicknesses equal to or beyond the bilayer regime, and predict that the SrO-terminated SrTiO3 should also be able to stabilize the films with optimal tensile strain and higher Tc's.