skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Detection of a Cooper-pair density wave in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x

Journal Article · · Nature (London)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17411· OSTI ID:1341670
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [4];  [8];  [9];  [3];  [10]
  1. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics. Lab. of Atomic and Solid State Physics; Univ. of St. Andrews, Scotland (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy
  3. Seoul National Univ. (Korea, Republic of). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. Inst. of Applied Physics; Inst. of Basic Science, Seoul (Korea, Republic of). Center for Correlated Electron Systems
  4. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics. Lab. of Atomic and Solid State Physics
  5. Inst. of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba (Japan)
  6. Inst. of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba (Japan); Univ. of Tokyo (Japan). Dept. of Physics
  7. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics. Lab. of Atomic and Solid State Physics; Binghamton Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics
  8. Univ. of St. Andrews, Scotland (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy; Max Planck Inst. for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden (Germany)
  9. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Dept.
  10. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics. Lab. of Atomic and Solid State Physics. Kavli Inst. at Cornell for Nanoscale Science; Univ. of St. Andrews, Scotland (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Dept.

The quantum condensate of Cooper pairs forming a superconductor was originally conceived as being translationally invariant. In theory, however, pairs can exist with finite momentum Q, thus generating a state with a spatially modulated Cooper-pair density. Such a state has been created in ultracold 6Li gas but never observed directly in any superconductor. It is now widely hypothesized that the pseudogap phase of the copper oxide superconductors contains such a ‘pair density wave’ state. In this paper we report the use of nanometre-resolution scanned Josephson tunnelling microscopy to image Cooper pair tunnelling from a d-wave superconducting microscope tip to the condensate of the superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x. We demonstrate condensate visualization capabilities directly by using the Cooper-pair density variations surrounding zinc impurity atoms and at the Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x crystal supermodulation. Then, by using Fourier analysis of scanned Josephson tunnelling images, we discover the direct signature of a Cooper-pair density modulation at wavevectors QP ≈ (0.25, 0)2π/a0 and (0, 0.25)2π/a0 in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x. The amplitude of these modulations is about five per cent of the background condensate density and their form factor exhibits primarily s or s' symmetry. Finally, this phenomenology is consistent with Ginzburg–Landau theory when a charge density wave with d-symmetry form factor and wavevector QC = QP coexists with a d-symmetry superconductor; it is also predicted by several contemporary microscopic theories for the pseudogap phase.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Seoul National Univ. (Korea, Republic of); Univ. of St. Andrews, Scotland (United Kingdom); Inst. of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba (Japan)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Moore Foundation (United States); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); Ministry of Science and Education (Japan); Institute for Basic Science (Korea, Republic of)
Contributing Organization:
Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Inst. of Basic Science, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Univ. of Tokyo (Japan); Binghamton Univ., NY (United States); Max Planck Inst. for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden (Germany)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-98CH10886; SC0010313; GBMF4544; EP/G03673X/1; IBS-R009-D1
OSTI ID:
1341670
Report Number(s):
BNL-113397-2016-JA; R&D Project: PM007; KC0201010
Journal Information:
Nature (London), Vol. 532, Issue 7599; ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 170 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (52)

Superconductivity in a Strong Spin-Exchange Field journal August 1964
Spin-imbalance in a one-dimensional Fermi gas journal September 2010
The electronic nature of high temperature cuprate superconductors journal September 2003
Colloquium : Theory of intertwined orders in high temperature superconductors journal May 2015
Stripe States with Spatially Oscillating d -Wave Superconductivity in the Two-Dimensional t t J Model journal February 2002
Unidirectional d -wave superconducting domains in the two-dimensional t J model journal October 2007
Nature of stripes in the generalized tJ model applied to the cuprate superconductors journal May 2009
Mean-Field Pairing Theory for the Charge-Stripe Phase of High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductors journal October 2011
Competing States in the t - J Model: Uniform d -Wave State versus Stripe State journal July 2014
Dynamical Layer Decoupling in a Stripe-Ordered High- T c Superconductor journal September 2007
Complementary pair-density-wave and d -wave-checkerboard orderings in high-temperature superconductors journal September 2008
Charge-4e superconductivity from pair-density-wave order in certain high-temperature superconductors journal September 2009
Dislocations and vortices in pair-density-wave superconductors journal June 2008
Quantum oscillations in a π -striped superconductor journal September 2012
Pair Density Wave in the Pseudogap State of High Temperature Superconductors journal October 2004
Pseudogap, charge order, and pairing density wave at the hot spots in cuprate superconductors journal November 2014
Renormalization group analysis of the pair-density-wave and charge order within the fermionic hot-spot model for cuprate superconductors journal July 2015
Interplay between pair- and charge-density-wave orders in underdoped cuprates journal March 2015
Coexistence of Charge-Density-Wave and Pair-Density-Wave Orders in Underdoped Cuprates journal May 2015
Fluctuation Dominated Josephson Tunneling with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope journal August 2001
On the use of STM superconducting tips at very low temperatures journal August 2004
Probing the superconducting condensate on a nanometer scale journal March 2006
Muon Spin Relaxation Studies of Zn-Substitution Effects in High- T c Cuprate Superconductors journal December 1996
Imaging the impact on cuprate superconductivity of varying the interatomic distances within individual crystal unit cells journal February 2008
Resonant X-Ray Scattering Studies of Charge Order in Cuprates journal March 2016
Direct phase-sensitive identification of a d-form factor density wave in underdoped cuprates journal July 2014
Symmetry of charge order in cuprates journal May 2015
The microscopic structure of charge density waves in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6.54 revealed by X-ray diffraction journal December 2015
Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling journal July 1962
Voltage Due to Thermal Noise in the dc Josephson Effect journal June 1969
Effect of the electromagnetic environment on the Coulomb blockade in ultrasmall tunnel junctions journal April 1990
Quantum Tunnelling in Small-Capacitance Josephson Junctions in a General Electromagnetic Environment journal September 1991
Classical phase diffusion in small hysteretic Josephson junctions journal October 1989
Charging effects and quantum properties of small superconducting tunnel junctions journal April 1989
Josephson scanning tunneling microscopy journal November 2001
Spectroscopic Imaging Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies of Electronic Structure in the Superconducting and Pseudogap Phases of Cuprate High- T c Superconductors journal January 2012
Picometer registration of zinc impurity states in Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+ δ for phase determination in intra-unit-cell Fourier transform STM journal May 2012
Atomic-scale electronic structure of the cuprate d-symmetry form factor density wave state journal October 2015
Simultaneous Transitions in Cuprate Momentum-Space Topology and Electronic Symmetry Breaking journal May 2014
Bond Order in Two-Dimensional Metals with Antiferromagnetic Exchange Interactions journal July 2013
Voltage Due to Thermal Noise in the dc Josephson Effect. journal August 1969
Fluctuation Dominated Josephson Tunneling with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope text January 2001
Complementary Pair Density Wave and d-wave Checkerboard Order in High Temperature Superconductors text January 2007
Charge $4e$ superconductivity from pair density wave order in certain high temperature superconductors text January 2009
Spin-Imbalance in a One-Dimensional Fermi Gas text January 2009
Picometer Registration of Zinc Impurity States in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d for Phase Determination in Intra-unit-cell Fourier Transform STM text January 2012
Competing states in the t-J model: uniform d-wave state versus stripe state text January 2014
Simultaneous Transitions in Cuprate Momentum-Space Topology and Electronic Symmetry Breaking text January 2014
Direct phase-sensitive identification of a d-form factor density wave in underdoped cuprates text January 2014
Resonant x-ray scattering studies of charge order in cuprates text January 2015
Fluctuation Dominated Josephson Tunneling with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope text January 2001
Probing the superconducting condensate on a nanometer scale text January 2006

Cited By (43)

Hidden Pair-Density-Wave Order in Cuprate Superconductors journal January 2019
Diagonal nematicity in the pseudogap phase of HgBa2CuO4+δ journal July 2019
Quantum engineered Kondo lattices journal December 2019
Doping the holographic Mott insulator journal July 2018
Visualization of the periodic modulation of Cooper pairing in a cuprate superconductor journal September 2018
A strongly inhomogeneous superfluid in an iron-based superconductor journal July 2019
Electron pairing in the pseudogap state revealed by shot noise in copper oxide junctions journal August 2019
High-temperature superconductivity in monolayer Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ journal October 2019
Chiral superconductivity in heavy-fermion metal UTe2 journal March 2020
Evolution of Pairing Orders between Pseudogap and Superconducting Phases of Cuprate Superconductors journal February 2019
Magnetic phase diagram of underdoped YBa 2 Cu 3 O y inferred from torque magnetization and thermal conductivity journal October 2016
Quantum oscillations in a biaxial pair density wave state journal May 2018
Evidence for a vestigial nematic state in the cuprate pseudogap phase journal June 2019
Fulde–Ferrell state in superconducting core/shell nanowires: role of the orbital effect journal November 2017
Charge ordering in high-temperature superconductors visualized by scanning tunneling microscopy journal October 2019
Anomalies in the pseudogap phase of the cuprates: competing ground states and the role of umklapp scattering journal October 2019
Incommensurate charge ordered states in the tt ′– J model journal January 2017
Stability of the coexistent superconducting-nematic phase under the presence of intersite interactions journal June 2018
Odd-frequency pairing in a superconductor coupled to two parallel nanowires journal July 2019
Theory of triangular lattice quasi-one-dimensional charge-transfer solids journal September 2019
Intrinsic cluster-shaped density waves in cellular dynamical mean-field theory journal December 2019
Selective hybridization between the main band and the superstructure band in the Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 + δ superconductor journal January 2020
Collective mode contributions to the Meissner effect: Fulde-Ferrell and pair-density wave superfluids journal June 2017
Dual gauge field theory of quantum liquid crystals in three dimensions journal October 2017
Multiparticle instability in a spin-imbalanced Fermi gas journal January 2018
Remarkable Stability of Charge Density Wave Order in La 1.875 Ba 0.125 CuO 4 journal October 2016
Evidence for a Spatially Modulated Superfluid Phase of He 3 under Confinement journal February 2019
Intertwined Orders in Heavy-Fermion Superconductor CeCoIn 5 journal December 2016
Evidence of pair-density wave in spin-valley locked systems journal March 2019
Ultrafast time-resolved x-ray scattering reveals diffusive charge order dynamics in La 2– x Ba x CuO 4 journal August 2019
Probing optically silent superfluid stripes in cuprates journal February 2018
Magnetic field–induced pair density wave state in the cuprate vortex halo journal June 2019
Coherent Multiple Charge Transfer in a Superconducting NbN Tunnel Junction journal June 2005
Dual gauge field theory of quantum liquid crystals in three dimensions text January 2017
Intertwined order and holography: the case of the parity breaking pair density wave text January 2017
Pair Density Waves in Superconducting Vortex Halos text January 2018
Quantum oscillations in a biaxial pair density wave state text January 2018
Magnetic-field Induced Pair Density Wave State in the Cuprate Vortex Halo text January 2018
Quantum Engineered Kondo Lattices text January 2019
Theory of triangular lattice quasi-one-dimensional charge-transfer solids text January 2019
Quasiclassical circuit-theory of contiguous disordered multiband superconductors text January 2019
Intrinsic Cluster-Shaped Density Waves in Cellular Dynamical Mean-Field Theory text January 2019
Topological superconductivity in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides journal April 2017


Similar Records

Imaging the energy gap modulations of the cuprate pair-density-wave state
Journal Article · Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Nature (London) · OSTI ID:1341670

Electronic Structure of the Cuprate Superconducting and Pseudogap Phases from Spectroscopic Imaging STM
Journal Article · Tue Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · New Journal of Physics · OSTI ID:1341670

Commensurate 4 a 0 -period charge density modulations throughout the Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+x pseudogap regime
Journal Article · Thu Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · OSTI ID:1341670