Superconductivity in Ca-intercalated bilayer graphene: C$_{2}$CaC$_{2}$

Abstract

The deposition and intercalation of metal atoms can induce superconductivity in monolayer and bilayer graphenes. For example, it has been experimentally proved that Li-deposited graphene is a superconductor with critical temperature $T_{c}$ of 5.9 K, Ca-intercalated bilayer graphene C$_{6}$CaC$_{6}$ and K-intercalated epitaxial bilayer graphene C$_{8}$KC$_{8}$ are superconductors with $T_{c}$ of 2-4 K and 3.6 K, respectively. However, the $T_{c}$ of them are relatively low. To obtain higher $T_{c}$ in graphene-based superconductors, here we predict a new Ca-intercalated bilayer graphene C$_{2}$CaC$_{2}$, which shows higher Ca concentration than the C$_{6}$CaC$_{6}$. It is proved to be thermodynamically and dynamically stable. The electronic structure, electron-phonon coupling (EPC) and superconductivity of C$_{2}$CaC$_{2}$ are investigated based on first-principles calculations. The EPC of C$_{2}$CaC$_{2}$ mainly comes from the coupling between the electrons of C-$p_{z}$ orbital and the high- and low-frequency vibration modes of C atoms. The calculated EPC constant $\lambda$ of C$_{2}$CaC$_{2}$ is 0.75, and the superconducting $T_{c}$ is 18.9 K, which is much higher than other metal-intercalated bilayer graphenes. By further applying -4\% biaxial compressive strain to C$_{2}$CaC$_{2}$, the $T_{c}$ can be boosted to 26.6 K. Thus, the predicted C$_{2}$CaC$_{2}$ provides a new platform for realizing superconductivity with the highest $T_{c}$ in bilayer graphenes.