Universal superconducting precursor in three classes of unconventional superconductors

Pelc, Anderson, Yu, Leighton, Greven (2019) Universal superconducting precursor in three classes of unconventional superconductors Nat Commun (IF: 16.6) 10(1) 2729

Abstract

A pivotal challenge posed by unconventional superconductors is to unravel how superconductivity emerges upon cooling from the generally complex normal state. Here, we use nonlinear magnetic response, a probe that is uniquely sensitive to the superconducting precursor, to uncover remarkable universal behaviour in three distinct classes of oxide superconductors: strontium titanate, strontium ruthenate, and the cuprate high-Tc materials. We find unusual exponential temperature dependence of the diamagnetic response above the transition temperature Tc, with a characteristic temperature scale that strongly varies with Tc. We correlate this scale with the sensitivity of Tc to local stress and show that it is influenced by intentionally-induced structural disorder. The universal behaviour is therefore caused by intrinsic, self-organized structural inhomogeneity, inherent to the oxides' perovskite-based structure. The prevalence of such inhomogeneity has far-reaching implications for the interpretation of electronic properties of perovskite-related oxides in general.

Links

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6588566
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31227719
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10635-w

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