Quantum Bipolaron Superconductivity from Quadratic Electron-Phonon Coupling.

When the electron-phonon coupling is quadratic in the phonon coordinates, electrons can pair to form bipolarons due to phonon zero-point fluctuations, a purely quantum effect. We study superconductivity originating from this pairing mechanism in a minimal model and reveal that, in the strong coupling regime, the critical temperature (T_{c}) is only mildly suppressed by the coupling strength, in stark contrast to the exponential suppression in linearly coupled systems, thus implying higher optimal T_{c} values. We demonstrate that large coupling constants of this flavor are achieved in known materials such as perovskites, and discuss strategies to realize such superconductivity using superlattices.