Magnetic field, frequency and temperature dependence of complex conductance of ultrathin La1.65Sr0.45CuO4/La2CuO4 films and the organic superconductors kappa-(BEDT-TTF)(2)Cu[N(CN)(2)]Br

We used atomic-layer molecular beam epitaxy (ALL-MBE) to synthesize bilayer films of a cuprate metal (La1.65Sr0.45CuO4, LSCO) and a cuprate insulator (La2CuO4, LCO), in which interface superconductivity occurs in a layer that is just one-half unit cell thick. We have studied the magnetic field and temperature dependence of the complex sheet conductance, sigma(omega), of these films, and compared them to kappa-(BEDT-TTF)(2)Cu[N(CN)(2)] Br single crystals. The magnetic field H was applied both parallel and perpendicular to the 2D conducting layers. Experiments have been carried out at frequencies between 23 kHz and 50 MHz using either two-coil mutual inductance technique, or the LC resonators with spiral or rectangular coils. The real and the imaginary parts of the mutual-inductance M(T,omega) between the coil and the sample were measured and converted to complex conductivity. For H perpendicular to the conducting layers, we observed almost identical behavior in both films and kappa-Br single crystals: (i) the transition onset in the inductive response, L-k(-1) (T) occurs at a temperature lower by 2 K than in Re sigma(T), (ii) this shift is almost constant with magnetic field up to 8 T; (iii) the vortex diffusion constant D(T) is exponential due to pinning of vortex cores. These results can be described by the extended dynamic theory of the Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition and dynamics of bound vortex-antivortex pairs with short separation lengths.

The Interplay Between Structural and Electronic Degrees of Freedom in Superconductors

Mathieu Julien Gino Cottet

More than one hundred years after the discovery of superconductivity in Leiden, the intriguing physics of several unconventional classes of superconductors continue to fascinate and challenge scientists from all over the world. The majority of these compounds belongs to a major class of materials known as strongly correlated systems that exhibit interesting and diverse physical properties, like the high-temperature superconductivity, the Mott-insulator transition, the colossal magnetoresistance or the structurally-driven electronic phase transitions. Rigorous and deep investigations of the electronic properties, as well as their tunability, should lead to new attractive commercial applications. With the use of time-resolved experiments or bulk sensitive techniques, which represent the main subject of this thesis, the electronic and magnetic properties of strongly correlated type-II superconductors and high-temperature copper-oxide superconductors are accessible. These techniques take advantages of the photon tunability in the case of optical pump-probe by allowing one to record the transient response of the material over the whole visible spectrum, or in the case of X-ray diffraction, the tunability of the synchrotron radiation thanks to the slicing operating at the SLS (Swiss Light Source) in Villigen, Switzerland. Cryo-LTEM allows one to work across the (H ,T ) phase diagram of type-II superconductors, thus enabling the study of the coexistence between normal and superconducting state by careful regulation of the applied magnetic field near the specimen. The Chapter 1 (1) is a general introduction dedicated to the historical evolution of our understanding of superconductivity, according to the theories and general concepts used and developed is this thesis. Chapter 2 (3) is dedicated to the experimental techniques. A careful description of the different setups, as well as a theoretical development needed for the calculations is presented. In Chapter 3 (4), the investigation of magnesium diboride superconductor by means of cryo-LTEM is presented. By observing the field-dependent vortex lattices in this system and performing calculations using the theoretical frameworks developed by Ginzburg-Landau and Abrikosov, I found that this compound belongs to the type-II family [1], and not to the novel type 1.5 class of superconductor. In Chapter 4 (5), I present the investigation related the charge density waves compound Lu5Ir4Si10. The use of ultrafast time-resolved optical pump-probe experiments, coupled with ab-anitio theoretical calculations of the electron-phonon coupling and the electronic structure, permits to shine new light on the nature of this transition which we identified as a structurally-driven Peierls transition [2]. The Chapter 5 (6) is dedicated to the investigation of the high-temperature copper-oxide superconductor, La2−x Srx CuO4, for different doping levels; the experiment was carrying out at the SLS on the Micro-XAS beamline, By using a transient temperature model and comparing our experimental results with temperature-dependent density of states calculations, we report on the electronic temperature dependence of the electron-phonon coupling constant (submitted to Phys. Rev. B).

EPFL2013

Electric field effect on superconductivity in $La_{2-x}$$Sr_{x}$$CuO_{4}$

Ivan Bozovic, Guy Joseph Günter Dubuis, Davor Pavuna

We demonstrate a method to tune the carrier concentration of a high temperature superconductor over a wide range, using an applied electric field. Thin film devices were made in an electrical double layer transistor configuration utilizing an ionic liquid. In this way, the surface carrier density in La2-xSrxCuO4 films can be varied between 0.01 and 0.14 carriers per Cu atom with a resulting change in critical temperature of 25 K (70% of the maximum critical temperature in this compound). This allows one to study a large segment of the cuprate phase diagram without altering the level of disorder. We used this method [A. T. Bollinger et al., Nature 472, 458–460 (2011)] to study the quantum critical point at the superconductor to insulator phase transition on the underdoped side of superconducting dome, and concluded that this transition is driven by quantum phase fluctuations and Cooper pair delocalization.

American Institute of Physics2012

Upper critical field, pressure-dependent superconductivity and electronic anisotropy of Sm4Fe2As2Te1-xO4-yFy

László Forró, Richard Gaal, Janusz Andrzej Karpinski, Sergiy Katrych, Bálint Náfrádi, Andrea Pisoni, Péter Szirmai

We present a detailed study of the electrical transport properties of a recently discovered iron-based superconductor: Sm4Fe2As2Te0.72O2.8F1.2. We followed the temperature dependence of the upper critical field by resistivity measurement of single crystals in magnetic fields up to 16 T, oriented along the two main crystallographic directions. This material exhibits a zero-temperature upper critical field of 90 T and 65 T parallel and perpendicular to the Fe2As2 planes, respectively. An unprecedented superconducting magnetic anisotropy gamma(H) = H-c2(ab)/H-c2(c) similar to 14 is observed near T-c, and it decreases at lower temperatures as expected in multiband superconductors. Direct measurement of the electronic anisotropy was performed on microfabricated samples, showing a value of rho(c)/rho(ab) (300 K) similar to 5 that rises up to 19 near T-c. Finally, we have studied the pressure and temperature dependence of the in-plane resistivity. The critical temperature decreases linearly upon application of hydrostatic pressure (up to 2 GPa) similarly to overdoped cuprate superconductors. The resistivity shows saturation at high temperatures, suggesting that the material approaches the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit for metallic conduction. Indeed, we have successfully modelled the resistivity in the normal state with a parallel resistor model that is widely accepted for this state. All the measured quantities suggest strong pressure dependence of the density of states.

Iop Publishing Ltd2016

The Interplay Between Structural and Electronic Degrees of Freedom in Superconductors

Mathieu Julien Gino Cottet

EPFL2013