No Arabic abstract
The recently discovered layered kagome metals AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A = K, Rb, and Cs) with vanadium kagome networks provide a novel platform to explore correlated quantum states intertwined with topological band structures. Here we report the prominent effect of hole doping on both superconductivity and charge density wave (CDW) order, achieved by selective oxidation of exfoliated thin flakes. A superconducting dome is revealed as a function of the effective doping content. The superconducting transition temperature ($T_{mathrm{c}}$) and upper critical field in thin flakes are significantly enhanced compared with the bulk, which are accompanied by the suppression of CDW. Our detailed analyses establish the pivotal role of van Hove singularities (VHSs) in promoting correlated quantum orders in these kagome metals. Our experiment not only demonstrates the intriguing nature of superconducting and CDW orders, but also provides a novel route to tune the carrier concentration, thereby establishing AV$_3$Sb$_5$ as a tunable 2D platform for the further exploration of topology and correlation among 3$d$ electrons in kagome lattices.
Superconductivity often emerges in the proximity of, or in competition with, symmetry breaking ground states such as antiferromagnetism or charge density waves (CDW)1-5. A number of materials in the cuprate family, which includes the high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors, show spin and charge density wave order5-7. Thus a fundamental question is to what extent these ordered states exist for compositions close to optimal for superconductivity. Here we use high-energy x-ray diffraction to show that a CDW develops at zero field in the normal state of superconducting YBa2Cu3O6.67 (Tc = 67 K). Below Tc, the application of a magnetic field suppresses superconductivity and enhances the CDW. Hence, the CDW and superconductivity are competing orders in this typical high-Tc superconductor, and high-Tc superconductivity can form from a pre-existing CDW state. Our results explain observations of small Fermi surface pockets8, negative Hall and Seebeck effect9,10 and the Tc plateau11 in this material when underdoped.
From systematic analysis of the high pulsed magnetic field resistance data of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_{4}$ thin films, we extract an experimental phase diagram for several doping values ranging from the very underdoped to the very overdoped regimes. Our analysis highlights a competition between charge density waves and superconductivity which is ubiquitous between $x=0.08$ and $x=0.19$ and produces the previously observed double step transition. When suppressed by a strong magnetic field, superconductivity is resilient for two specific doping ranges centered around respectively $xapprox 0.09$ and $xapprox 0.19$ and the characteristic temperature for the onset of the competing charge density wave phase is found to vanish above $x = 0.19$. At $x=1/8$ the two phases are found to coexist exactly at zero magnetic field.
The charge density wave in the high-temperature superconductor YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-x}$ (YBCO) is now known to have two different ordering tendencies differentiated by their $c$-axis correlations. These correspond to ferro- (F-CDW) and antiferro- (AF-CDW) couplings between CDW in neighbouring CuO$_2$ bilayers. This discovery has prompted a number of fundamental questions. For example, how does superconductivity adjust to two competing orders and are either of these orders responsible for the electronic reconstruction? Here we use high-energy x-ray diffraction to study YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.67}$ as a function of magnetic field and temperature. We show that regions of the sample with F-CDW correlations suppress superconductivity more strongly than those with AF-CDW correlations. This implies that an inhomogeneous superconducting state exists, in which some regions show a weak or fragile form of superconductivity. By comparison of F-CDW and AF-CDW correlation lengths, it is furthermore concluded that F-CDW ordering is sufficiently long-range to modify the electronic structure. Our study thus suggests that F-CDW correlations have an important impact on superconducting and normal state properties of underdoped YBCO.
Real-space modulated Charge Density Waves (CDW) are an ubiquituous feature in many families of superconductors. In particular, how CDW relates to superconductivity is an active and open question that has recently gathered much interest since CDWs have been discovered in many cuprates superconductors. Here we show that disorder induced by proton irradiation is a full-fledged tuning parameter that can bring essential information to answer this question as it affects CDW and superconductivity with different and unequivocal mechanisms. Specifically, in the model CDW superconductor Lu$_5$Ir$_4$Si$_{10}$ that develops a 1D CDW below 77,K and s-wave superconductivity below 4,K, we show that disorder enhances the superconducting critical temperature $T_mathrm{c}$ and $H_mathrm{c2}$ while it suppresses the CDW. Discussing how disorder affects both superconductivity and the CDW, we make a compelling case that superconductivity and CDW are competing for electronic density of states at the Fermi level in Lu$_5$Ir$_4$Si$_{10}$, and we reconcile the results obtained via the more common tuning parameters of pressure and doping. Owing to its prototypical, 1D, Peierls type CDW and the s-wave, weak-coupling nature of its superconductivity, this irradiation study of Lu$_5$Ir$_4$Si$_{10}$ provides the basis to understand and extend such studies to the more complex cases of density waves and superconductivity coexistence in heavy fermions, Fe-based or cuprates superconductors.
In this paper we report the impact of uniaxial strain $varepsilon$ applied along the crystalline $a$ axis on the newly discovered kagome superconductor CsV$_3$Sb$_5$. At ambient conditions, CsV$_3$Sb$_5$ shows a charge-density wave (CDW) transition at $T_{rm CDW}=94.5$ K and superconducts below $T_C = 3.34$ K. In our study, when the uniaxial strain $varepsilon$ is varied from $-0.90%$ to $0.90%$, $T_C$ monotonically increases by $sim 33%$ from 3.0 K to 4.0 K, giving rise to the empirical relation $T_C (varepsilon)=3.4+0.56varepsilon+0.12varepsilon^2$. On the other hand, for $varepsilon$ changing from $-0.76%$ to $1.26%$, $T_{rm CDW}$ decreases monotonically by $sim 10%$ from 97.5 K to 87.5 K with $T_{rm CDW}(varepsilon)=94.5-4.72varepsilon-0.60varepsilon^2$. The opposite response of $T_C$ and $T_{rm CDW}$ to the uniaxial strain suggests strong competition between these two orders. Comparison with hydrostatic pressure measurements indicate that it is the change in the $c$-axis that is responsible for these behaviors of the CDW and superconducting transitions, and that the explicit breaking of the sixfold rotational symmetry by strain has a negligible effect. Combined with our first-principles calculations and phenomenological analysis, we conclude that the enhancement in $T_C$ with decreasing $c$ is caused primarily by the suppression of $T_{rm CDW}$, rather than strain-induced modifications in the bare superconducting parameters. We propose that the sensitivity of $T_{rm CDW}$ with respect to the changes in the $c$-axis arises from the impact of the latter on the trilinear coupling between the $M_1^+$ and $L_2^-$ phonon modes associated with the CDW. Overall, our work reveals that the $c$-axis lattice parameter, which can be controlled by both pressure and uniaxial strain, is a powerful tuning knob for the phase diagram of CsV$_3$Sb$_5$.