The Electronic Ingredients for Oxide High-Tc: Making Connections Between Cuprates and Bismuthates
Abstract
High temperature copper-oxide (cuprate) superconductors and bismuth-oxide (bismuthate) superconductors both have disputed, and likely different, mechanism of superconductivity. The electronic ingredients which produce higher superconducting transition temperature (Tc) can be uncovered via angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments on single-layer cuprates (Tc, maximum=95K) and bismuthates (Tc, maximum=30K). ARPES has singularly elucidated many unconventional superconductors by measuring the energy vs momentum relationships of electrons in solids in a direction-resolved manner. Comprehensive and precise experimental determination of energy vs momentum relationships can directly inform an accurate mechanism for superconductivity, by virtue of clarifying how electrons move in a solid and how they interact with excitations responsible for superconductivity. However, such information is scarce or unavailable for the specific compounds of interest to this study, in part because of challenges in producing a smooth surface during the necessary cleaving procedure at the start of an experiment. This will be addressed by implementing controlled cleaving tools, numerically accounting for surface topography, and performing ARPES experiments which isolate microscopic portions of a sample. The goals of this study will be to use two different families of oxide superconductors to mutually inform which electronic behaviors are associated with high Tc, and to develop experimental and numerical tools to harness modern ARPES capabilities for imperfectly-cleaved or even polycrystalline samples. The former will inform how to engineer superconductors, particularly isotropic ones, with even higher Tc, and the latter will allow for this experimentally-driven design of materials’ electronic properties to be extended to phenomena well beyond superconductivity.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 09, 2018
- Source ID
- FA95501810156
Entities
People
- Inna Vishik
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of California, Davis