High-temperature superconductivity using a model of hydrogen bonds

Abstract

Recently, there has been much interest in high-temperature superconductors and more recently in hydrogen-based superconductors. This work offers a simple model that explains the behavior of the superconducting gap based on naive BCS (Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer) theory and reproduces most effects seen in experiments, including the isotope effect and Tc enhancement as a function of pressure. We show that this is due to a combination of the factors appearing in the gap equation: the matrix element between the proton states and the level splitting of the proton.