Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Anomalous superconducting state gap size versus {ital T}{sub {ital c}} behavior in underdoped Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 1{minus}{ital x}}Dy{sub {ital x}}Cu{sub 2}O{sub 8+{delta}}

Journal Article · · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter
; ; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Department of Applied Physics and Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4045 (United States)
  2. Ginzton Research Center, Varian Associates, Palo Alto, California 94304-1025 (United States)

We report angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements of the excitation gap in underdoped superconducting thin films of Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 1{minus}{ital x}}Dy{sub {ital x}}Cu{sub 2}O{sub 8+{delta}}. As {ital T}{sub {ital c}} is reduced by a factor of 2 by underdoping, the superconducting state gap {Delta} does not fall proportionally, but instead stays constant or increases slightly, in violation of the BCS mean-field theory result. The different doping dependences of {Delta} and {ital kT}{sub {ital c}} indicate that they represent different energy scales. The measurements also show that {Delta} is highly anisotropic and consistent with a {ital d}{sub {ital x}{sup 2}{minus}{ital y}{sup 2}} order parameter, as in previous studies of samples with higher dopings. However, in these underdoped samples, the anisotropic gap persists well above {ital T}{sub {ital c}}. The existence of a normal state gap is related to the failure of {Delta} to scale with {ital T}{sub {ital c}} in theoretical models that predict pairing without phase coherence above {ital T}{sub {ital c}}. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

OSTI ID:
399848
Journal Information:
Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter, Journal Name: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter Journal Issue: 22 Vol. 54; ISSN PRBMDO; ISSN 0163-1829
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English