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Title: Percolative nature of the direct-current paraconductivity in cuprate superconductors

Abstract

Abstract Despite extraordinary scientific efforts over the past three decades, the cuprate high-temperature superconductors continue to pose formidable challenges. A pivotal problem, essential for understanding both the normal and superconducting states, is to clarify the nature of the superconducting pre-pairing above the bulk transition temperature T c . Different experimental probes have given conflicting results, in part due to difficulties in discerning the superconducting response from the complex normal-state behavior. Moreover, it has proven challenging to separate common properties of the cuprates from compound-specific idiosyncrasies. Here we investigate the paraconductivity—the superconducting contribution to the direct-current (dc) conductivity—of the simple-tetragonal model cuprate material HgBa 2 CuO 4+ δ . We are able to separate the superconducting and normal-state responses by taking advantage of the Fermi-liquid nature of the normal state in underdoped HgBa 2 CuO 4+ δ ; the robust and simple quadratic temperature-dependence of the normal-state resistivity enables us to extract the paraconductivity above the macroscopic T c with great accuracy. We find that the paraconductivity exhibits unusual exponential temperature dependence, and that it can be quantitatively explained by a simple superconducting percolation model. Consequently, the emergence of superconductivity in this model system is dominated bymore » the underlying intrinsic gap inhomogeneity. Motivated by these insights, we reanalyze published results for two other cuprates and find exponential behavior as well, with nearly the same characteristic temperature scale. The universal intrinsic gap inhomogeneity is not only essential for understanding the supercoducting precursor, but will also have to be taken into account in the analysis of other bulk measurements of the cuprates.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ORCiD logo; ;
Publication Date:
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1467942
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
npj Quantum Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: npj Quantum Materials Journal Volume: 3 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2397-4648
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

Citation Formats

Popčević, Petar, Pelc, Damjan, Tang, Yang, Velebit, Kristijan, Anderson, Zachary, Nagarajan, Vikram, Yu, Guichuan, Požek, Miroslav, Barišić, Neven, and Greven, Martin. Percolative nature of the direct-current paraconductivity in cuprate superconductors. United Kingdom: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41535-018-0115-2.
Popčević, Petar, Pelc, Damjan, Tang, Yang, Velebit, Kristijan, Anderson, Zachary, Nagarajan, Vikram, Yu, Guichuan, Požek, Miroslav, Barišić, Neven, & Greven, Martin. Percolative nature of the direct-current paraconductivity in cuprate superconductors. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-018-0115-2
Popčević, Petar, Pelc, Damjan, Tang, Yang, Velebit, Kristijan, Anderson, Zachary, Nagarajan, Vikram, Yu, Guichuan, Požek, Miroslav, Barišić, Neven, and Greven, Martin. Thu . "Percolative nature of the direct-current paraconductivity in cuprate superconductors". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-018-0115-2.
@article{osti_1467942,
title = {Percolative nature of the direct-current paraconductivity in cuprate superconductors},
author = {Popčević, Petar and Pelc, Damjan and Tang, Yang and Velebit, Kristijan and Anderson, Zachary and Nagarajan, Vikram and Yu, Guichuan and Požek, Miroslav and Barišić, Neven and Greven, Martin},
abstractNote = {Abstract Despite extraordinary scientific efforts over the past three decades, the cuprate high-temperature superconductors continue to pose formidable challenges. A pivotal problem, essential for understanding both the normal and superconducting states, is to clarify the nature of the superconducting pre-pairing above the bulk transition temperature T c . Different experimental probes have given conflicting results, in part due to difficulties in discerning the superconducting response from the complex normal-state behavior. Moreover, it has proven challenging to separate common properties of the cuprates from compound-specific idiosyncrasies. Here we investigate the paraconductivity—the superconducting contribution to the direct-current (dc) conductivity—of the simple-tetragonal model cuprate material HgBa 2 CuO 4+ δ . We are able to separate the superconducting and normal-state responses by taking advantage of the Fermi-liquid nature of the normal state in underdoped HgBa 2 CuO 4+ δ ; the robust and simple quadratic temperature-dependence of the normal-state resistivity enables us to extract the paraconductivity above the macroscopic T c with great accuracy. We find that the paraconductivity exhibits unusual exponential temperature dependence, and that it can be quantitatively explained by a simple superconducting percolation model. Consequently, the emergence of superconductivity in this model system is dominated by the underlying intrinsic gap inhomogeneity. Motivated by these insights, we reanalyze published results for two other cuprates and find exponential behavior as well, with nearly the same characteristic temperature scale. The universal intrinsic gap inhomogeneity is not only essential for understanding the supercoducting precursor, but will also have to be taken into account in the analysis of other bulk measurements of the cuprates.},
doi = {10.1038/s41535-018-0115-2},
journal = {npj Quantum Materials},
number = 1,
volume = 3,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Thu Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Thu Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-018-0115-2

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