Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Superconductors

Opening the gap

Nature volume 392, pages 134–135 (1998)Cite this article

The discovery that metals emit electrons when exposed to ultraviolet light led Einstein to the radical conclusion that light is made up of photons. Physicists' long affair with photoemission continues today. As the paper by Norman and colleagues on page 157 of this issue1 shows, it is changing the way we think about the collective motions of electrons in a new class of metals — the high-temperature superconductors.

Electrons are fermions, so no two can share the same quantum state. This is what leads to the diversity of the periodic table. In metals, it means that electrons can't accumulate in the states of lowest energy and momentum, but instead spread out uniformly in momentum up to a particular maximum energy called the Fermi energy. In this way, electrons form a kind of droplet in momentum space (the Brillouin zone), with those on the droplet surface (the Fermi surface) being at the Fermi energy. The deformations and vibrations of the Fermi surface govern the collective properties of a metal.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The Fermi surface in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ.

References

  1. Norman, M. R. et al. Nature 392, 157–160 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Batlogg, B. Phys. Today 6, no. 44, 44-50 (1991).

  3. Olson, C. G. et al. Science 245, 731–733 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Campuzano, J. C. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 2308–2312 (1990).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Shen, Z.-X. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1553–1556 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Doniach, S. & Inui, M. Phys. Rev. B 41, 6668–6678 (1990).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Randeria, M., Trivedi, N., Moreo, A. & Scalettar, R. Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 2001–2004 (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Zachar, O., Kivelson, S. A. & Emery, V. J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1342–1345 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Millis, A. J. et al. Phys Rev B 53, 415–424 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Anderson, P. W. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 8, 10083–10088 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Wen, X. G. & Lee, P. A. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 503–506 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Marshall, D. S. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 4841–4845 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Loeser, A. G. et al. Science 273, 325–329 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Ding, H. et al. Nature 382, 51–53 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Renner, Ch. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 149–152 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Norman, M. R., Randeria, M., Ding, H. & Campuzano, J. C. http://xxx.lanl.gov/archive/cond-mat/9711232

  17. Harris, J. M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 143–146 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, 08854-8019, New Jersey, USA

    Piers Coleman

Authors
  1. Piers Coleman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Coleman, P. Opening the gap. Nature 392, 134–135 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/32306

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/32306

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing