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Title: Superconductivity in an infinite-layer nickelate

Journal Article · · Nature (London)
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  2. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

The discovery of unconventional superconductivity in (La,Ba)2CuO4 has motivated the study of compounds with similar crystal and electronic structure, with the aim of finding additional superconductors and understanding the origins of copper oxide superconductivity. Isostructural examples include bulk superconducting Sr2RuO4 and surface-electron-doped Sr2IrO4, which exhibits spectroscopic signatures consistent with a superconducting gap, although a zero-resistance state has not yet been observed. This method has additionally led to the theoretical investigation of nickelates, as well as thin-film heterostructures designed to host superconductivity. One such structure is the LaAlO3/LaNiO3 superlattice, which has been recently proposed for the creation of an artificially layered nickelate heterostructure with a singly occupied d$$_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$$ band. The absence of superconductivity observed in previous related experiments has been attributed, at least in part, to incomplete polarization of the eg orbitals. In this work we report the observation of superconductivity in an infinite-layer nickelate that is isostructural to infinite-layer copper oxides. Using soft-chemistry topotactic reduction, NdNiO2 and Nd0.8Sr0.2NiO2 single-crystal thin films are synthesized by reducing the perovskite precursor phase. Whereas NdNiO2 exhibits a resistive upturn at low temperature, measurements of the resistivity, critical current density and magnetic-field response of Nd0.8Sr0.2NiO2 indicate a superconducting transition temperature of about 9 to 15 kelvin. Because this compound is a member of a series of reduced layered nickelate crystal structures, these results suggest the possibility of a family of nickelate superconductors analogous to copper oxides and pnictides.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1562463
Journal Information:
Nature (London), Vol. 572, Issue 7771; ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 418 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (23)

Electron‐Doping Mottronics in Strongly Correlated Perovskite journal December 2019
Theory‐Guided Defect Tuning through Topochemical Reactions for Accelerated Discovery of UVC Persistent Phosphors journal December 2019
Absence of superconductivity in Nd0.8Sr0.2NiOx thin films without chemical reduction journal March 2020
Superconductivity seen in a non-magnetic nickel oxide journal August 2019
Electronic structure of the parent compound of superconducting infinite-layer nickelates journal January 2020
Electronic structure of rare-earth infinite-layer R Ni O 2 ( R = La , Nd ) journal November 2019
Formation of a two-dimensional single-component correlated electron system and band engineering in the nickelate superconductor NdNiO 2 journal November 2019
Self-doped Mott insulator for parent compounds of nickelate superconductors journal January 2020
Role of 4 f states in infinite-layer NdNiO 2 journal January 2020
Spin liquids and pseudogap metals in the SU(4) Hubbard model in a moiré superlattice journal January 2020
Nickelate superconductors: Multiorbital nature and spin freezing journal January 2020
Robust d x 2 y 2 -wave superconductivity of infinite-layer nickelates journal February 2020
Induced magnetic two-dimensionality by hole doping in the superconducting infinite-layer nickelate Nd 1 x Sr x NiO 2 journal February 2020
Materials design of dynamically stable d 9 layered nickelates journal February 2020
Late transition metal oxides with infinite-layer structure: Nickelates versus cuprates journal February 2020
High-density electron doping of SmNiO 3 from first principles journal November 2019
Two-band model for magnetism and superconductivity in nickelates journal December 2019
Effective Hamiltonian for nickelate oxides Nd 1 x Sr x NiO 2 journal February 2020
Magnetic penetration depth and T c in superconducting nickelates journal February 2020
Similarities and Differences between LaNiO 2 and CaCuO 2 and Implications for Superconductivity journal February 2020
Electronic structure of the parent compound of superconducting infinite-layer nickelates text January 2019
Late transition-metal oxides with infinite-layer structure: Nickelates versus cuprates text January 2019
Observation of an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point in high-purity LaNiO$_3$ text January 2020

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