Unconventional superconductivity without doping in infinite-layer nickelates under pressure

Abstract

Abstract High-temperature unconventional superconductivity quite generically emerges from doping a strongly correlated parent compound, often (close to) an antiferromagnetic insulator. The recently developed dynamical vertex approximation is a state-of-the-art technique that has quantitatively predicted the superconducting dome of nickelates. Here, we apply it to study the effect of pressure in the infinite-layer nickelate Sr x Pr1−x NiO2. We reproduce the increase of the critical temperature (T c ) under pressure found in experiment up to 12 GPa. According to our results, T c can be further increased with higher pressures. Even without Sr-doping the parent compound, PrNiO2, will become a high-temperature superconductor thanks to a strongly enhanced self-doping of the Ni $${d}_{{x}^{2}-{y}^{2}}$$ d x 2 − y 2 orbital under pressure. With a maximal T c of 100 K around 100 GPa, nickelate superconductors can reach that of the best cuprates.