Decrease of upper critical field with underdoping in cuprate superconductors
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Contributors
Abstract
It is still unclear why the transition temperature T c of cuprate superconductors falls with underdoping. The doping dependence of the critical magnetic field H c2 is directly relevant to this question, but different estimates of H c2 are in sharp contradiction. We resolve this contradiction by tracking the characteristic field scale of superconducting fluctuations as a function of doping, via measurements of the Nernst effect in La 1.8-x Eu 0.2 Sr x CuO 4 . H c2 is found to fall with underdoping, with a minimum where stripe order is strong. The same non-monotonic behaviour is observed in the archetypal cuprate superconductor YBa 2 Cu 3 O y . We conclude that competing states such as stripe order weaken superconductivity and cause both H c2 and T c to fall as cuprates become underdoped.
Details
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 751-756 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Nature physics |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 10 |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2012 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
Externally published | Yes |