Abstract
In high-temperature cuprate superconductors, the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) depends on the number of CuO2 planes in the structural unit and the maximum Tc is realized in the trilayer system. Trilayer superconductors also exhibit an unusual phase diagram where Tc is roughly constant in the overdoped region, which is in contrast to the decrease usually found in other cuprate superconductors. The mechanism for these two effects remains unclear. Here we report features in the electronic structure of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ superconductor that helps to explain this issue. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements show the splitting of bands from the three layers, and this allows us to parameterize a three-layer interaction model that effectively describes the data. This, in turn, demonstrates the electronic origin of the maximum Tc and its persistence in the overdoped region. These results are qualitatively consistent with a composite picture where a high Tc is realized in an array of coupled planes with different doping levels such that a high pairing strength is derived from the underdoped planes, whereas a large phase stiffness comes from the optimally or overdoped ones.
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Data availability
All raw data generated during the study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Code availability
The codes used for the fitting and simulation process in this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 11888101 (to X.J.Z.), 11922414 (to L.Z.) and 11974404 (to G.L.)), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant nos. 2021YFA1401800 (to X.J.Z.), 2017YFA0302900 (to T.X.) and 2018YFA0305600 (to G.L.)), the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDB25000000 (to X.J.Z.)), Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology (grant no. 2021ZD0301800 (to X.J.Z.)), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (grant no. Y2021006 (to L.Z.)) and the Synergetic Extreme Condition User Facility (SECUF).
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X.J.Z. and X.L. proposed and designed the research. X.L., H.C., C.Y., Q.G. and H.Y. carried out the ARPES experiments. C.L. grew the single crystals. H.C., C.Y., T.M., H.L., Y.S., Y.C., S.Z., Z.W., F.Z., F.Y., Q.P., G.L., L.Z., Z.X. and X.J.Z. contributed to the development and maintenance of the laser ARPES and ARTOF systems. X.L., Y.L., Q.G. and T.X. contributed to the theoretical analysis. X.L. and X.J.Z. analysed the data and wrote the paper. All authors participated in the discussions and commented on the paper.
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Luo, X., Chen, H., Li, Y. et al. Electronic origin of high superconducting critical temperature in trilayer cuprates. Nat. Phys. 19, 1841–1847 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02206-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02206-0
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