Superconducting LaPtH$_{ 6 }$ with triatomic hydrogen units

Abstract

To veryfy "hot supreconductivity" recently proposed in lanthanum hydride-based compounds, we explored thermodynamically stable and superconducting phases in the lanthanum (La)-platinum (Pt)-hydrogen (H) ternary system at 20 GPa using an evolutionary construction scheme of a formation-enthalpy convex hull, universal neural network potential calculations, and density functional theory calculations. Although we found no evidence of the hot superconductivity in this ternary system, we predicted a unique compound, LaPtH$_{ 6 }$, which has equilateral triangular H$_{ 3 }$ units nearly forming a two-dimensional kagome lattice between La and Pt layers and shows the superconductivity at 18.67 K. This structure is dynamically stable from ambient pressure to at least 200 GPa and the superconducting critical temperature increases from 13.51 to 40.63 K.