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No mixing of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in a high-temperature superconductor

Nature volume 422, pages 873–875 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

There is still no universally accepted theory of high-temperature superconductivity. Most models assume that doping creates ‘holes’ in the valence band of an insulating, antiferromagnetic ‘parent’ compound, and that antiferromagnetism and high-temperature superconductivity are intimately related1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. If their respective energies are nearly equal, strong antiferromagnetic fluctuations (temporally and spatially restricted antiferromagnetic domains) would be expected in the superconductive phase, and superconducting fluctuations would be expected in the antiferromagnetic phase7; the two states should ‘mix’ over an extended length scale8. Here we report that one-unit-cell-thick antiferromagnetic La2CuO4 barrier layers remain highly insulating and completely block a supercurrent; the characteristic decay length is 1 Å, indicating that the two phases do not mix. We likewise found that isolated one-unit-cell-thick layers of La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 remain superconducting. The latter further implies that, on doping, new electronic states are created near the middle of the bandgap. These two findings are in conflict with most proposed models, with a few notable exceptions that include postulated spin–charge separation2.

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Figure 1: The structure of the SIS ‘sandwich’ junctions studied here.
Figure 2: Transport in SIS junctions.
Figure 3: A ‘reverse’ experiment showing that 1UC-thick layers of LSCO remain superconducting. A superlattice film was synthesized by alternating 2UC-thick layers of insulating LCO and 1UC-thick layers of LSCO, as illustrated schematically in the inset; the actual film has 20 super-periods, and its total thickness is 79 nm.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge discussions with M. R. Beasley, A. Leggett, G. A. Sawatzky, S. Kivelson, A. Tsvelik, P. Stamp, S. C. Zhang, A. Kleinsasser, A. Abrikosov, A. Millis, R. Dynes and S. Chakraverty. We thank I. Sveklo, B. Narimbetov and I. Belca for technical help. This work was supported in part by AFOSR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oxxel GmbH, Technologiepark Universitaet, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    I. Bozovic, G. Logvenov, M. A. J. Verhoeven, P. Caputo & E. Goldobin

  2. Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Applied Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    T. H. Geballe

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  1. I. Bozovic
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  2. G. Logvenov
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  3. M. A. J. Verhoeven
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  4. P. Caputo
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  5. E. Goldobin
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Correspondence to I. Bozovic.

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Bozovic, I., Logvenov, G., Verhoeven, M. et al. No mixing of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in a high-temperature superconductor. Nature 422, 873–875 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01544

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