Structural and electronic response of overexpanded superconducting fullerides close to the Mott insulator boundary

Abstract

The ternary fulleride, Rb[Formula: see text]Cs[Formula: see text]C[Formula: see text], is the most expanded member of the family of face-centered cubic (fcc) structured superconducting fullerides ever accessed with superconductivity surviving at ambient pressure closest to the Mott insulator boundary. Here, we study the evolution of its structural and electronic properties with temperature. At ambient temperature, Rb[Formula: see text]Cs[Formula: see text]C[Formula: see text] lies in the Mott–Jahn–Teller (MJT) insulating part of the phase diagram. High-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction shows that its structure remains strictly cubic at all temperatures, but the transition to the metallic state at [Formula: see text] 50 K — evident in the evolution of the magnetic susceptibility with temperature — is accompanied by a lattice collapse, [Formula: see text]V/V0 of [Formula: see text]. Bulk superconductivity then emerges on further cooling with a T[Formula: see text] of 25.9 K. The results permit the extension of the electronic phase diagram of A3C[Formula: see text] fullerides as close as possible to the metal–insulator (M–I) crossover.