Atomically-resolved interlayer charge ordering and its interplay with superconductivity along the c direction in YBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>6.81</sub>

ORAL

Abstract

Charge order (CO) has been recognized as one of the most important competing order in superconductive cuprates. However, the most fundamental physical mechanisms governing CO, for example, the role of so-called charge reservoir (Cu-O chain) layers in CO and the spatial interplay of CO and SC, in highly-doped YBCO are still unclear.

Here, we present the direct real-space cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy (XSTM) imaging with atomic resolution to characterize the atomically resolved electronic structure along the c [001] direction in high-temperature superconductive YBa2Cu3O6.81 cuprates. We demonstrate that CO occurs on CuO plane and chain layers with an antiphase correlation along the c-axis direction governed by Coulomb repulsion rather than Josephson tunneling. Similarly, superconductive coherence is also observed in chain and plane layers in YBa2Cu3O6.81. In addition, at the CO phase boundary, the mutually competing behavior between CO and SC phases and a proximity-like boundary region are observed.

The present atomically-resolved XSTM provides a detailed insight into the unexplored interlayer coupling and its spatial interplay with superconductivity and therefore offers a new approach to unravel the fundamental physical mechanisms of superconductivity in cuprates.[1]

*This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan (Contract No. MOST 109-2628-M-002-005-MY3, and MOST 109- 2622-8-002-003), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and German Academic Exchange Service MOST-DAAD Project-Based Personnel Exchange Program (Contract No. 109-2927-I-002-509 and 57447615), National Taiwan Univ. (Contract No. NTU-109L7848), and the Center of Atomic Initiative for New Materials, National Taiwan Univ., Taipei, Taiwan from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan (108L9008). B.-C.H. and M.-Y.L. acknowledge the financial support from Academia Sinica through the investigator award (AS-IA-107-M03) granted to Prof. Yuh-Lin Wang.

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Publication: Reference
[1] Chun-Chih Hsu, Bo-Chao Huang, Michael Schnedler, Ming-Yu Lai, Yuh-Lin Wang, Rafal E. Dunin Borkowski, Chia-Seng Chang, Ting Kuo Lee, Philipp Ebert, and Ya-Ping Chiu, "Atomically-resolved interlayer charge ordering and its interplay with superconductivity inYBa2Cu3O6.81", Nature Communications, 12, 3893 (2021).

Presenters

  • Ya-Ping Chiu

    • Deaprtment of Physics, National Taiwan University

Authors

  • Ya-Ping Chiu

    • Deaprtment of Physics, National Taiwan University

  • Chun-Chih Hsu

    • National Taiwan University

  • Bo-Chao Huang

    • Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

  • Michael Schnedler

    • Peter Gru¨nberg Institut, Forschungszentrum Ju¨lich GmbH, Ju¨lich, Germany

  • Ming-Yu Lai

    • Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

  • Yuh-Lin Wang

    • Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

  • Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski

    • Peter Gru¨nberg Institut, Forschungszentrum Ju¨lich GmbH, Ju¨lich, Germany

  • Chia-Seng Chang

    • Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

  • Ting-Kuo Lee

    • Department of Physics, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University
    • National Tsing Hua University

  • Philipp Ebert

    • Peter Gru¨nberg Institut, Forschungszentrum Ju¨lich GmbH, Ju¨lich, Germany