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Superconductivity in CaCuO2 as a result of field-effect doping

Nature volume 414, pages 434–436 (2001)Cite this article

A Retraction to this article was published on 06 March 2003

Abstract

Understanding the doping mechanisms in the simplest superconducting copper oxide—the infinite-layer compound ACuO2 (where A is an alkaline earth metal)—is an excellent way of investigating the pairing mechanism in high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors more generally1,2,3,4. Gate-induced modulation of the carrier concentration5,6,7 to obtain superconductivity is a powerful means of achieving such understanding: it minimizes the effects of potential scattering by impurities, and of structural modifications arising from chemical dopants. Here we report the transport properties of thin films of the infinite-layer compound CaCuO2 using field-effect doping. At high hole- and electron-doping levels, superconductivity is induced in the nominally insulating material. Maximum values of Tc of 89 K and 34 K are observed respectively for hole- and electron-type doping of around 0.15 charge carriers per CuO2. We can explore the whole doping diagram of the CuO2 plane while changing only a single electric parameter, the gate voltage.

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Figure 1: Schematic structure of the infinite-layer compound CaCuO2.
Figure 2: Structure of the field-effect device.
Figure 3: Resistance of a CaCuO2 film as a function of temperature and electron-doping level x.
Figure 4: Resistivity of a CaCuO2 film as a function of temperature and hole-doping level x.
Figure 5: The superconducting phase diagram of CaCuO2.
Figure 6: Normalized resistance as a function of temperature for n-type under-doped, optimally doped and overdoped CaCuO2.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Blumberg, Ch. Kloc, H. Y. Hwang and C. M. Varma for discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, 07974-0636, New Jersey, USA

    J. H. Schön

  2. GPMD-Université Paris, 12-61 avenue De Gaulle, Créteil Cedex, 94010, France

    M. Dorget, F. C. Beuran & C. Deville Cavellin

  3. Surfaces et Supraconducteurs CNRS UPR5-ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, Paris, 75005, France

    M. Dorget, X. Z. Zu, E. Arushanov, C. Deville Cavellin & M. Laguës

  4. Wintici SA, 17 rue Jean Moulin, Vincennes, 94 300, France

    F. C. Beuran

  5. Institute of Applied Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Moldova Republic, Academiei str. 5, Kishinev, 277028, Moldova

    E. Arushanov

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  1. J. H. Schön
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Correspondence to J. H. Schön.

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Schön, J., Dorget, M., Beuran, F. et al. Superconductivity in CaCuO2 as a result of field-effect doping. Nature 414, 434–436 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35106539

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