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Register a new userExperimental investigation of the magnetic field driven superconductor/ insulator transition in underdoped $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$ thin films
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The magnetic field driven superconductor/insulator transition is studied in a large variety of $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$ thin films of various Sr dopings. Temperature dependence of the resistivity down to 4.2 or 1.5 K under high pulsed magnetic field (up to 57 T) is analyzed. In particular, the existence of plateaus in the resistance versus temperature curves, in a limited range of temperature, for given values of the magnetic field is carefully investigated. It is shown to be associated to scaling behaviour of the resistance versus magnetic field curves, evocative of the presence of a quantum critical point. A three-dimensional (H,x,T) phase diagram is proposed, taking into account the intrinsic lamellar nature of the materials by the existence of a temperature crossover from quantum-two-dimensional to three-dimensional behavior.
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The contribution of superconducting fluctuations to the conductivity, or paraconductivity is studied in the underdoped regime of $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$ cuprates. A perpendicular magnetic field up to 50 T is applied to suppress the superconductivity and obtain the normal state resistivity which is then used to calculate the paraconductivity. Surprisingly enough, it is consistent with a two-dimensional Aslamazov-Larkin (AL) regime of Gaussian fluctuations close to the critical temperature. At higher temperature, the paraconductivity shows a power-law decrease in temperature (as $T^{-alpha}$) as was previously shown for underdoped $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-delta}$ and $Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+delta}$ samples. Our observations are not consistent with the existence of Kosterlitz-Thouless fluctuations. This tends to indicate that the superconducting pair amplitude is not already defined above $T_C$ in the pseudogap state.
We study theoretically orbital effects of a parallel magnetic field applied to a disordered superconducting film. We find that the field reduces the phase stiffness and leads to strong quantum phase fluctuations driving the system into an insulating behavior. This microscopic model shows that the critical field decreases with the sheet resistance, in agreement with recent experimental results. The predictions of this model can be used to discriminate spin and orbital effects. We find that experiments conducted by A. Johansson textit{et al.} are more consistent with the orbital mechanism.
We report a detailed study of the electric-field dependence of the normal-state conductivity in La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 thin films for two concentrations of doped holes, x=0.01 and 0.06, where formation of diagonal and vertical charged stripes was recently suggested. In order to elucidate whether high electric fields are capable of depinning the charged stripes and inducing their collective motion, we have measured current-voltage characteristics for various orientations of the electric field with respect to the crystallographic axes. However, even for the highest possible fields (~1000 V/cm for x=0.01 and ~300 V/cm for x=0.06) we observed no non-linear-conductivity features except for those related to the conventional Joule heating of the films. Our analysis indicates that Joule heating, rather than collective electron motion, may also be responsible for the non-linear conductivity observed in some other 2D transition-metal oxides as well. We discuss that a possible reason why moderate electric fields fail to induce a collective stripe motion in layered oxides is that fairly flexible and compressible charged stripes can adjust themselves to the crystal lattice and individual impurities, which makes their pinning much stronger than in the case of conventional rigid charge-density waves.
In the underdoped pseudogap regime of cuprate superconductors, the normal state is commonly probed by applying a magnetic field ($H$). However, the nature of the $H$-induced resistive state has been the subject of a long-term debate, and clear evidence for a zero-temperature ($T=0$) $H$-tuned superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) has proved elusive. Here we report magnetoresistance measurements in underdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$, providing striking evidence for quantum critical behavior of the resistivity -- the signature of a $H$-driven SIT. The transition is not direct: it is accompanied by the emergence of an intermediate state, which is a superconductor only at $T=0$. Our finding of a two-stage $H$-driven SIT goes beyond the conventional scenario in which a single quantum critical point separates the superconductor and the insulator in the presence of a perpendicular $H$. Similar two-stage $H$-driven SIT, in which both disorder and quantum phase fluctuations play an important role, may also be expected in other copper-oxide high-temperature superconductors.
In high temperature copper oxides superconductors, a novel magnetic order associated with the pseudogap phase has been identified in two different cuprate families over a wide region of temperature and doping. We here report the observation below 120 K of a similar magnetic ordering in the archetypal cuprate ${rm La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4}$ (LSCO) system for x=0.085. In contrast to the previous reports, the magnetic ordering in LSCO is {itbf only} short range with an in-plane correlation length of $sim$ 10 AA and is bidimensional (2D). Such a less pronounced order suggests an interaction with other electronic instabilities. In particular, LSCO also exhibits a strong tendency towards stripes ordering at the expense of the superconducting state.
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