On the high-pressure superconducting phase in platinum hydride

Motivated by the ambiguous experimental data for the superconducting phase in silane (SiH₄), which may originate from platinum hydride (PtH), we provide a theoretical study of the superconducting state in the latter alloy. The quantitative estimates of the thermodynamics of PtH at 100 GPa are given for a wide range of Coulomb pseudopotential values (${\mu }^{\ast }$) within the Eliashberg formalism. The obtained critical temperature value ($T_C\in ⟨12.94,20.01⟩$ for ${\mu }^{\ast }\in ⟨0.05,0.15⟩$) agrees well with the experimental T_C for SiH₄, which may be ascribed to PtH. Moreover, the calculated characteristic thermodynamic ratios exceed the predictions of the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory, implying the occurrence of strong-coupling and retardation effects in PtH. We note that our results may be of high relevance for future theoretical and experimental studies on hydrides. (paper)