Grain boundary bicrystal Josephson junctions of the electron-doped infinite-layer superconductor Sr$_{1-x}$La$_x$CuO$_2$ ($x = 0.15$) were grown by pulsed laser deposition. BaTiO$_3$-buffered $24\,^\circ$ [001]-tilt symmetric SrTiO$_3$ bicrystals were used as substrates. We examined both Cooper pair (CP) and quasiparticle (QP) tunneling by electric transport measurements at temperatures down to 4.2\,K. CP tunneling revealed an extraordinary high critical current density for electron-doped cuprates of $j_c > 10^3\,$A/cm$^2$ at 4.2\,K. Thermally activated phase slippage was observed as dissipative mechanism close to the transition temperature. Out-of-plane magnetic fields $H$ revealed a remarkably regular Fraunhofer-like $j_c(H)$ pattern as well as Fiske and flux flow resonances, both yielding a Swihart velocity of $3.1\cdot10^6\,$m/s. Furthermore, we examined the superconducting gap by means of QP tunneling spectroscopy. The gap was found to be V-shaped with an extrapolated zero temperature energy gap $Δ_0 \approx 2.4\,$meV. No zero bias conductance peak was observed.
We report a detailed spectroscopic study of the electron doped cuprate superconductor Pr(2-x)Ce(x)CuO(4-δ) using point contact junctions for x=0.125(underdoped), x=0.15(optimally doped) and x=0.17(overdoped). From our conductance measurements we are able to identify bosonic resonances for each doping. These excitations disappear above the critical temperature, and above the critical magnetic field. We find that the energy of the bosonic excitations decreases with doping, which excludes lattice vibrations as the paring glue. We conclude that the bosonic mediator for these cuprates is more likel…
The magnetic-field (H) dependence of the thermal conductivity κof Pr_{1.3}La_{0.7}CuO_4 is found to show a pronounced minimum for in-plane fields at low temperature, which is best attributed to the scattering of phonons by free spins that are seen by a Schottky-type specific heat and a Curie-Weiss susceptibility. Besides pointing to a strong spin-phonon coupling in cuprates, the present result demonstrates that the H-dependence of the phonon heat transport should not be naively neglected when discussing the κ(H) behavior of cuprates, since the Schottky anomaly is ubiquitously found in cuprates…
We have studied the chemical potential shift in the electron-doped superconductor Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ by precise measurements of core-level photoemission spectra. The result shows that the chemical potential monotonously increases with electron doping, quite differently from La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$, where the shift is suppressed in the underdoped region. If the suppression of the shift in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ is attributed to strong stripe fluctuations, the monotonous increase of the chemical potential is consistent with the absence of stripe fluctuations in Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_{x…
The interplay of charge order, spin order, and superconductivity in La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_4$ creates a complex physical system that hosts several interesting phases, such as two-dimensional superconductivity within the CuO$_2$ planes and the ordered pair-density wave state in which charge ordering is intertwined with superconductivity. Using Josephson interferometry techniques, we measure the current-phase relation of junctions and SQUIDs incorporating this material and observe a significant sin($2ϕ$)-component indicative of closely-spaced alternations of the sign of the Josephson coupling pred…
To understand the recently observed high temperature superconductivity in the monolayer CuO$_2$ grown on the Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ substrates, we propose a two band model of the hybridized oxygen $p_x$ and $p_y$ orbitals with the proximity effect of the substrate. We demonstrate that both the nodal and nodeless d-wave superconducting states can be induced by the proximity effect, depending on the strengths of the pairing parameters.
We present resistivity measurements of the upper critical field (H$_{c2}$) phase diagram as a function of temperature (T) for Nd$_{1.85}$Ce$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4+δ}$/SrTiO$_3$ single crystal films with different degree of disorder ($δ$) in magnetic fields up to 90 kOe at temperatures down to 0.4 K. The data are well described by a two-band/two-gap model for a superconductor in the dirty limit.
We report that planar CuO_2 hole densities in high-T_c cuprates are consistently determined by the Cu-NMR Knight shift. In single- and bi-layered cuprates, it is demonstrated that the spin part of the Knight shift K_s(300 K) at room temperature monotonically increases with the hole density $p$ from underdoped to overdoped regions, suggesting that the relationship of K_s(300 K) vs. p is a reliable measure to determine p. The validity of this K_s(300 K)-p relationship is confirmed by the investigation of the p-dependencies of hyperfine magnetic fields and of spin susceptibility for single- and b…
We present point contact spectroscopy (PCS) data for junctions between a normal metal and the electron doped cuprate superconductor Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ (PCCO). For the underdoped compositions of this cuprate ($x \sim 0.13$) we observe a peak in the conductance-voltage characteristics of the point contact junctions. The shape and magnitude of this peak suggests the presence of Andreev bound states at the surface of underdoped PCCO which is evidence for a d-wave pairing symmetry. For overdoped PCCO ($x \sim 0.17$) the PCS data does not show any evidence of Andreev bound states at the surface…
Low temperature specific heat of the electron-doped (n-type) infinite-layer cuprate $Sr_{0.9}La_{0.1}CuO_{2}$ has been measured. The quasiparticle density of states (DOS) in the mixed state is found to be consistent with the feature of the s-wave pairing symmetry, agreeing very well with the earlier tunnelling measurement, but being contrary to the d-wave symmetry well confirmed for the hole-doped (p-type) cuprates. Our results indicate that the electronic DOS are mainly contributed by the vortex cores in the present sample being contrast to the p-type cuprates in which the vortex cores are ab…
We report the dynamics of the cuprate superconductor La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_4$ ($x = 0.14$) after intense photoexcitation utilizing near-infrared (800 nm) optical pump-terahertz probe spectroscopy. In the superconducting state at 5 K, we observed a redshift of the Josephson plasma resonance that sustains for hundreds of picoseconds after the photoexcitation, indicating the destruction of the $c$-axis superconducting coherence. We show that the metastable spectral features can be described by the photoinduced surface heating of the sample. We also demonstrate that the conventional analysis used…
The metallic state of the underdoped high-Tc cuprates has remained an enigma: How may seemingly disconnected Fermi surface segments, observed in zero magnetic field as a result of the opening of a partial gap (the pseudogap), possess conventional quasiparticle properties? How do the small Fermi-surface pockets evidenced by the observation of quantum oscillations (QO) emerge as superconductivity is suppressed in high magnetic fields? Such QO, discovered in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6.5 (Y123) and YBa2Cu4O8 (Y124), signify the existence of a conventional Fermi surface (FS). However, due to the complexi…
The existing theory about the cuprate superconductor bases on band theory, almost all neglects the position difference of Cu-O ions on CuO2 plane, and assumes that the charge on ions are averagely distributed. Considering that the nature of conduction is the moving of electrons, carrier means electron in this article. The charge opposite the carriers distributes on fixed ions, and the position difference of Cu-O ions slightly violates average electricity distribution, so the concept of hole is not suitable. It is proved that, near the optimal doping level, since the density of ions is relative…
We performed measurements of switching current distribution in a submicron La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJ) stack in a wide temperature range. The escape rate saturates below approximately 2\,K, indicating that the escape event is dominated by a macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) process with a crossover temperature $T^{*}\approx2\,$K. We applied the theory of MQT for IJJ stacks, taking into account dissipation and the phase re-trapping effect in the LSCO IJJ stack. The theory is in good agreement with the experiment both in the MQT and in the thermal activati…
We study the dynamics of multi-junction switching (MJS): several intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) in an array switch to the finite voltage state simultaneously. The number of multi-switching junctions ($N$) was successfully tuned by changing the load resistance serially connected to an Bi$_2$Sr$_{1.6}$La$_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+δ}$ IJJ array. The independence of the escape rates of $N$ in the macroscopic quantum tunneling regime indicates that MJS is a $successive$ switching process rather than a $collective$ process. The origin of MJS is explained by the gradient of a load curve and the relative m…
We present measurements of the fluctuation superconductivity in an underdoped thin film of La$_{1.905}$Sr$_{0.095}$CuO$_4$ using time-domain THz spectroscopy. We compare our results with measurements of diamagnetism in a similarly doped crystal of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. We show through a vortex-plasma model that if the fluctuation diamagnetism solely originates in vortices, then they must necessarily exhibit an anomalously large vortex diffusion constant, which is more than two orders of magnitude larger than the Bardeen-Stephen estimate. This points to either the extremely unusual propertie…
We used femtosecond optical pump-probe spectroscopy to study the photoinduced change in reflectivity of thin films of the electron-doped cuprate La$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ (LCCO) with dopings of x$=$0.08 (underdoped) and x$=$0.11 (optimally doped). Above T$_c$, we observe fluence-dependent relaxation rates which onset at a similar temperature that transport measurements first see signatures of antiferromagnetic correlations. Upon suppressing superconductivity with a magnetic field, it is found that the fluence and temperature dependence of relaxation rates is consistent with bimolecular recombina…
We examine the effect of CuO intergrowths on the superconductivity in epitaxial La_{2/3}Ca_{1/3}MnO_3/YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-δ} (LCMO/YBCO) thin-film heterostructures. Scanning transmission electron microscopy on bilayer LCMO/YBCO thin films revealed double CuO-chain intergrowths which form regions with the 247 lattice structure in the YBCO layer. These nanoscale 247 regions do not appear in x-ray diffraction, but can physically account for the reduced critical temperature Tc of bilayer thin films relative to unilayer films with the same YBCO thickness, at least down to ~25 nm. We attribute the CuO int…
We characterize the spontaneous magnetic field, and determine the associated temperature Tg, in the superconducting state of Ca(x)La(1-x)Ba(1.75-x)La(0.25+x)Cu(3)O(y) using zero and longitudinal field MuSR measurements for various values of x and y. Our major findings are: (I) Tg and Tc are controlled by the same energy scale, (II) the phase separation between hole poor and hole rich regions is a microscopic one, and (III) spontaneous magnetic fields appear gradually with no moment size evolution.
The role of antiferromagnetic spin correlations in high-temperature superconductors remains a matter of debate. We present inelastic neutron scattering evidence that gapless spin fluctuations coexist with superconductivity in La$_{1.905}$Ba$_{0.095}$CuO$_4$. Furthermore, we observe that both the low-energy magnetic spectral weight and the spin incommensurability are enhanced by the onset of superconducting correlations. We propose that the coexistence occurs through intertwining of spatial modulations of the pair wave function and the antiferromagnetic correlations. This proposal is also direc…
It is well established that the hole density in the prototypical superconductor La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ is very inhomogeneous due to Sr-dopant induced disorder. On the other hand, until recently it is widely believed that the hole distribution in HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$ and Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ doped by interstitial oxygen is much more uniform. Recent nuclear magnetic resonance measurements indicate, however, that the charge inhomogeneity in HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$ is close to that in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. Calculations performed in the present paper confirm this observation. We also show t…
For both electron- and hole-doped cuprates, superconductivity appears in the vicinity of suppressed broken symmetry order, suggesting that quantum criticality plays a vital role in the physics of these systems. A confounding factor in identifying the role of quantum criticality in the electron-doped systems is the competing influence of chemical doping and oxygen stoichiometry. Using high quality thin films of Pr$_{2}$CuO$_{4\pmδ}$, we tune superconductivity and uncover the influence of quantum criticality without Ce substitution. We observe magnetic quantum oscillations that are consistent wi…
We comment on the work by Moler, et al., [Science 279, 1193 (1998)] concerning determination of the c-axis penetration depth in the single-layer compound Tl-2201 through measuring the magnetic flux due to isolated interlayer Josephson vortices.
Photoexcitations on a superconductor using ultrafast nir-infrared (NIR) pulses, whose energy is much higher than the superconducting energy gap, are expected to suppress/destroy superconductivity by breaking Cooper pairs and excite quasiparticles from occupied state to unoccupied state far above the Fermi level. This appears to be true only for small pumping fluence. Here we show that the intense NIR pumping has different effect. We perform an intense NIR pump, c-axis terahertz probe measurement on an electron-doped cuprate superconductor Pr$_{0.88}$LaCe$_{0.12}$CuO$_4$ with T$_c$=22 K. The me…
The heat carriers responsible for the unexpectedly large thermal Hall conductivity of the cuprate Mott insulator La$_2$CuO$_4$ were recently shown to be phonons. However, the mechanism by which phonons in cuprates acquire chirality in a magnetic field is still unknown. Here, we report a similar thermal Hall conductivity in two cuprate Mott insulators with significantly different crystal structures and magnetic orders - Nd$_2$CuO$_4$ and Sr$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$ - and show that two potential mechanisms can be excluded - the scattering of phonons by rare-earth impurities and by structural domains. Ou…
The electron-doped cuprate Pr(2-x)Ce(x)CuO(4) is investigated using infrared magneto-optical measurements. The optical Hall conductivity sigma_{xy} shows a strong doping, frequency and temperature dependence consistent with the presence of a temperature and doping-dependent coherent backscattering amplitude which doubles the electronic unit cell. The data suggest that the coherent backscattering vanishes at a quantum critical point inside the superconducting dome and is associated with the commensurate antiferromagnetic order observed by other workers. Using a spectral weight analysis we have …
We study magnetotransport properties of the electron-doped superconductor Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_{4\pmδ}$ with $x$ = 0.14 in magnetic fields up to 92~T, and observe Shubnikov de-Haas magnetic quantum oscillations. The oscillations display a single frequency $F$=255$\pm$10~T, indicating a small Fermi pocket that is $\sim$~1\% of the two-dimensional Brillouin zone and consistent with a Fermi surface reconstructed from the large hole-like cylinder predicted for these layered materials. Despite the low nominal doping, all electronic properties including the effective mass and Hall effect are consist…
The lamellar cuprate superconductors exhibit the highest ambient-pressure superconducting transition temperatures (T$_C$) and, after more than three decades of extraordinary research activity, continue to pose formidable scientific challenges. A major experimental obstacle has been to distinguish universal phenomena from materials- or technique-dependent ones. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measures momentum-dependent single-particle electronic excitations and has been invaluable in the endeavor to determine the anisotropic momentum-space properties of the cuprates. HgBa$_2$…
The microscopic details of flux line lattice state studied by muon spin rotation is reported in an electron-doped high-$T_{\rm c}$ cuprate superconductor, Sr$_{1-x}$La$_{x}$CuO$_{2}$ (SLCO, $x=0.10$--0.15). A clear sign of phase separation between magnetic and non-magnetic phases is observed, where the effective magnetic penetration depth [$λ\equivλ(T,H)$] is determined selectively for the latter phase. The extremely small value of $λ(0,0)$ %versus $T_{\rm c}$ and corresponding large superfluid density ($n_s \propto λ^{-2}$) is consistent with presence of a large Fermi surface with carrier den…
It is now well established that superconductivity in cuprates competes with charge modulations giving electronic phase separation at a nanoscale. More specifically, superconducting electronic current takes root in the available free space left by electronic charge ordered domains, called charge density wave (CDW) puddles. This means that CDW domain arrangement plays a fundamental role in the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity in cuprates. Here we report about the possibility of controlling the population and spatial organization of the charge density wave puddles in a single cryst…
A new electron-doped superconductor Li_x_Sr_2_CuO_2_Br_2_ with x = 0.15 has successfully been synthesized by an electrochemical Li-intercalation technique. The magnetic susceptibility shows superconductivity of bulk with the superconducting transition temperature Tc = 8 K. This compound is the first electron-doped superconducting cuprate with the K_2_NiF_4_ structure.
Cuprate superconductors still hold many open questions, in particular concerning their normal state properties, including the role of charge ordering. Nuclear magnetic resonance on $^{63,65}$Cu and $^{17}$O in the CuO$_2$ plane is a very sensitive bulk probe of charge variations, but not properly understood. Since early NMR, the oxygen satellite line splittings in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+y}$ were attributed to the orthorhombic distortion, while they could also be due to charge ordering. We employ high pressure NMR on YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.9}$ hoping that charge order would respond to pressure differen…
We report the temperature dependence of the infrared-visible conductivity of Pr(2-x)Ce(x)CuO(4) thin films. When varying the doping from a non-superconducting film (x = 0.11) to a superconducting overdoped film (x = 0.17), we observe, up to optimal doping (x = 0.15), a partial gap opening. A model combining a spin density wave gap and a frequency and temperature dependent self energy reproduces our data reasonably well. The magnitude of this gap extrapolates to zero for x ~ 0.17 indicating the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity in this material and the existence of a quantum critic…
The pairing state symmetry of the electron-doped cuprate superconductors is thought to be s-wave in nature, in contrast with their hole-doped counterparts which exhibit a d-wave symmetry. We re-examine this issue based on recent improvements in our electron-doped materials and our measurement techniques. We report microwave cavity perturbation measurements of the temperature dependence of the penetration depth of Pr_(2-x)Ce_(x)CuO_(4-y) and Nd_(2-x)Ce_(x)CuO_(4-y) crystals. Our data strongly suggest that the pairing symmetry in these materials is not s-wave.
Tetragonal CuO (T-CuO) has attracted attention because of its structure similar to that of the cuprates. It has been recently proposed as a compound whose study can give an end to the long debate about the proper microscopic modeling for cuprates. In this work, we rigorously derive an effective one-band generalized $t\!-\!J$ model for T-CuO, based on orthogonalized Zhang-Rice singlets, and make an estimative calculation of its parameters, based on previous \textit{ab initio} calculations. By means of the self-consistent Born approximation, we then evaluate the spectral function and the quasipa…
We present the results of electrical transport measurements of La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$Cu$_{1-y}$Ni$_{y}$O$_{4}$ thin single-crystal films at magnetic fields up to 9 T. Adding Ni impurity with strong Coulomb scattering potential to slightly underdoped cuprate makes the signs of resistivity saturation at $ρ_{sat}$ visible in the measurement temperature window up to 350 K. Employing the parallel-resistor formalism reveals that $ρ_{sat}$ is consistent with classical Ioffe-Regel-Mott limit and changes with carrier concentration $n$ as $ρ_{sat}\propto 1/\sqrt{n}$. Thermopower measurements show that N…
We propose two possible new compounds, Ba$_2$CuO$_2$Fe$_2$As$_2$ and K$_2$CuO$_2$Fe$_2$Se$_2$, which hybridize the building blocks of two high temperature superconductors, cuprates and iron-based superconductors. These compounds consist of square CuO$_2$ layers and antifluorite-type Fe$_2$X$_2$ (X=As,Se) layers separated by Ba/K. The calculations of binding energies and phonon spectrums indicate that they are dynamically stable, which ensures that they may be experimentally synthesized. The Fermi surfaces and electronic structures of the two compounds inherit the characteristics of both cuprat…
We report near and mid-infrared pump c-axis terahertz probe measurement on a superconducting single crystal La$_{1.905}$Ba$_{0.095}$CuO$_4$ with T$_c$=32 K. The measurement reveals that the pump-induced change occurs predominantly at the Josephson plasma edge position below T$_c$. Upon excited by the strong near-infrared pulses, the superconducting state is severely disturbed and incoherent quasiparticle excitations develop in frequency regime above the static plasma edge. However, within very short time delay ($\sim$1.5 ps) we observe the reappearance of a very sharp Josephson plasma edge at …
Recent angle resolved photoemission spectrascope (ARPES) experiments on strongly underdoped Bi$_2$Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+δ}$ cuprates have reported an unusual gap in the nodal direction. Transport experiments on these cuprates found variable range hopping behavior observed. These cuprates have both electron and hole doping which has led to proposals that this cuprate is analogous to a partially compensated semiconductors. The nodal gap then corresponds to the Efros-Schklovskii(ES) gap in such semiconductors. We calculate the doping dependence and temperature dependence of a ES gap model and f…
In-plane resistivity ρ_{ab}, Hall coefficient, and magnetoresistance (MR) are measured in a series of high-quality Bi_{2}Sr_{2-x}La_{x}CuO_{6} crystals with various carrier concentrations, from underdope to overdope. Our crystals show the highest T_c (33 K) and the smallest residual resistivity ever reported for Bi-2201 at optimum doping. It is found that the temperature dependence of the Hall angle obeys a power law T^n with n systematically decreasing with increasing doping, which questions the universality of the Fermi-liquid-like T^2 dependence of the "Hall scattering rate". In particular,…
We consider a renormalization group study of the problem of coupled stripes of holes in cuprates. We use a model of a mesh of horizontal and vertical stripes and study the problemof superconductivity via the Josephson coupling. We discuss the evolution of the Fermi surface with doping and temperature, the existence of Luttinger and/or Fermi liquid behavior, the presence of pre-formed Cooper pairs and the symmetry and magnitude of the superconducting order parameter.
We present high pressure diamond anvil cell synchrotron X-ray, resistivity, and ac-susceptibility measurements on electron-doped cuprate Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ to much higher pressures than previously reported. At 2.72 GPa between 88 and 98$%$ of the superconducting T$^\prime$ phase \cite{Tprime} of the optimally doped Pr$_{1.85}$Ce$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4}$ transforms into the insulating phase T. The T$_{c}$ of the remaining 2-12$%$ T$^\prime$ phase is suppressed continuously from 22 K to 18.5 K at about 14 GPa. Remarkably, the T$_{c}$ of the over doped Pr$_{1.83}$Ce$_{0.17}$CuO$_{4}$ remains pr…
In this work zero-temperature phase diagrams of cuprates with Ba$_2$CuO$_3$-type CuO chain structure is investigated. The projective symmetry group analysis is employed in the strong coupling limit, and renormalization group with bosonization analysis is employed in the weak coupling limit. We find that in both of these two limits, large areas of the phase diagrams are filled with nodeless $s$-wave superconducting phases (with weak $d$-wave components), instead of pure $d$-wave phase mostly found in cuprates. This implies that nodeless $s$-wave phase is the dominant superconducting phase in cu…
We have studied the density of states of the normal state of the electron-doped superconductor Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ at low temperatures and in magnetic fields up to 31 Tesla using point contact spectroscopy on single crystals. Our data clearly reveal an anomalous gap in the normal state density of states. This normal state gap survives even in the highest applied field of 31 T. Our results cast doubt over whether this gap found in electron-doped cuprates is the analog of the pseudogap in hole-doped cuprates. We have suggested an alternate origin of the normal state gap, which involves the e…
In this work, we generalize the theory of localized surface plasmons to the case of high-Tc cuprate superconductors, spatially confined in the form of small spherical particles. At variance from ordinary metals, cuprate superconductors are characterized by a low-energy bulk excitation known as the Josephson plasma wave (JPW), arising from interlayer tunneling of the condensate along the c-axis. The effect of the JPW is revealed in a characteristic spectrum of surface excitations, which we call Josephson surface plasmons. Our results, which apply to any material with a strongly anisotropic elec…
We present \emph{c} axis infrared optical data on a number of Ba, Sr and Nd-doped cuprates of the La$_{2}$CuO$_{4}$ (La214) series in which we observe significant deviations from the universal Josephson relation linking the normal state transport (DC conductivity $σ_{DC}$ measured at $T_{c}$) with the superfluid density ($ρ_{s}$): $ρ_{s}\proptoσ_{DC}(T_{c})$. We find the violation of Josephson scaling is associated with striking enhancement of the anisotropy in the superfluid density. The data allows us to link the breakdown of Josephson interlayer physics with the development of magnetic orde…
With simple but exactly solvable model, we investigate the supercurrent transferring through the c-axis cuprate superconductor-normal metal-superconductor junctions with the clean normal metal much thicker than its coherence length. It is shown that the supercurrent as a function of thickness of the normal metal decreases much slower than the exponential decaying expected by the proximity effect. The present result may account for the giant proximity effect observed in the c-axis cuprate SNS junctions.
We report on the magnetic phase diagram of a hole-doped cuprate Ca$_{2-x}$Na$_{x}$CuO$_{2}$Cl$_{2}$, which is free from buckling of CuO$_2$ planes, determined by muon spin rotation and relaxation. It is characterized by a quasi-static spin glass-like phase over a range of sodium concentration ($0.05\leq x\leq 0.12$), which is held between long range antiferromagnetic (AF) phase ($x\leq 0.02$) and superconducting phase where the system is non-magnetic for $x\geq 0.15$. The obtained phase diagram qualitatively agrees well with that commonly found for hole-doped high-\tc cuprates, strongly sugges…
We find systematic signatures suggesting a different superconducting nature for a triple-layered cuprate Bi$_2$Sr$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{10+δ}$ with respect to a double-layer through the properties of intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs). Our measurements on the current-voltage characteristics reveal that the $c$-axis maximum Josephson current density is sensitive to the superfluid density in outer planes while the critical temperature and the superconducting gap remain unaffected. Switching dynamics of stacked IJJs exhibit that the fluctuation in gauge-invariant phase difference of an IJJ implies…
Light scattering by Josephson vortices is theoretically predicted. An experimental set-up for the observation of the effect is proposed. The magnetic field should be parallel to the CuO_2 layers and the crystal surface. The falling light should be at grazing angles, and the Bragg scattering must be almost backscattering. The distance between the columns of the Josephson vortices must be slightly smaller than the light-wavelength. The surface should be very clean and flat in order light scattering by surface terraces and surface roughness to give the relatively small background.
The striped cuprate La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_4$ ($x=\frac18)$ undergoes several transitions below the charge-ordering temperature $T_{co}$ = 54 K. From Nernst experiments, we find that, below $T_{co}$, there exists a large, anomalous Nernst signal $e_{N,even}(H,T)$ that is symmetric in field $H$, and remains finite as $H\to 0$. The time-reversal violating signal suggests that, below $T_{co}$, vortices of one sign are spontaneously created to relieve interlayer phase frustration.
The distribution of electrons and holes in the CuO$_2$ plane of the high-temperature superconducting cuprates is determined with nuclear magnetic resonance through the quadrupole splittings of $^{17}$O and $^{63}$Cu. Based on new data for single crystals of electron-doped Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$(x=0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15) as well as Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ (x=0, 0.13) the changes in hole contents $n_d$ of Cu 3d$(x^2-y^2)$ and $n_p$ of O 2$p_σ$ orbitals are determined and they account for the stoichiometrically doped charges, similar to hole-doped \lsco. It emerges that while $n_d+2n_p=1$ in all pa…
We have performed resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) near the Cu-K edge on cuprate superconductors La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4), La(2-x)Ba(x)CuO(4), La(2-x)Sr(x)Cu(1-y)Fe(y)O(4) and Bi(1.76)Pb(0.35)Sr(1.89)CuO(6+d), covering underdoped to heavily overdoped regime and focusing on charge excitations inside the charge-transfer gap. RIXS measurements of the 214 systems with Ei = 8.993 keV have revealed that the RIXS intensity at 1 eV energy transfer has a minimum at (0,0) and maxima at (0.4pi, 0) and $(0, 0.4pi) for all doping points regardless of the stripe ordered state, suggesting that the corres…
A comprehensive angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the band structure in single layer cuprates is presented with the aim of uncovering universal trends across different materials. Five different hole- and electron-doped cuprate superconductors (La$_{1.59}$Eu$_{0.2}$Sr$_{0.21}$CuO$_4$, La$_{1.77}$Sr$_{0.23}$CuO$_4$, Bi$_{1.74}$Pb$_{0.38}$Sr$_{1.88}$CuO$_{6+δ}$, Tl$_{2}$Ba$_{2}$CuO$_{6+δ}$, and Pr$_{1.15}$La$_{0.7}$Ce$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4}$) have been studied with special focus on the bands with predominately $d$-orbital character. Using light polarization analysis, the $e_g$ and $t_{…
The mechanism of field-effect doping in the "123" high critical temperature superconductors (HTS) has been investigated by x-ray absorption spectroscopy in the presence of an electric field. We demonstrate that holes are created at the CuO chains of the charge reservoir and that field-effect doping of the CuO2 planes occurs by charge transfer, from the chains to the planes, of a fraction of the overall induced holes. The electronic properties of the charge reservoir and of the dielectric/HTS interface determine the electric field doping of the CuO2 planes
