Strain Induced Superconductivity in Semiconductors

Non-hydrostatic stresses such as those under uniaxial or shear strains have been increasingly introduced in high-pressure study and strain engineering to extend the phase space and enrich the accessible structures and properties of matter. Our recent theoretical studies revealed that diamond, which is insulating in ambient or hydrostatic high-pressure environments, can be driven into a metallic state by biaxial compression-shear strains and even become superconducting. This surprising result indicates that strain engineering with non-hydrostatic stresses may offer an effective tool for generating and tuning superconductivity among covalent solids. Our further work showed that semiconductors like Si and SiC also exhibit intrinsic strain induced superconductivity under distinct uniaxial and multiaxial deformation paths, allowing convenient and robust tuning strategies for exploring the intrinsic connection and reversible transition between the semiconducting and superconducting states of these materials, opening vast untapped structural configurations for rational exploration of tunable emergence and transition of these intricate quantum phenomena in a broad range of materials.