Disorder raises the critical temperature of a cuprate superconductor

Abstract

With the discovery of charge density waves (CDW) in most members of the cuprate high temperature superconductors, the interplay between superconductivity and CDW has become a key point in the debate on the origin of high temperature superconductivity. Some experiments in cuprates point toward a CDW state competing with superconductivity, but others raise the possibility of a CDW-superconductivity intertwined order, or more elusive pair-density wave (PDW). Here we have used proton irradiation to induce disorder in crystals of La${}_{1.875}$Ba${}_{0.125}$CuO${}_4$ and observed a striking 50% increase of $T_{\mathrm{c}}$ accompanied by a suppression of the CDW. This is in clear contradiction with the behaviour expected of a d-wave superconductor for which both magnetic and non-magnetic defects should suppress $T_{\mathrm{c}}$. Our results thus make an unambiguous case for the strong detrimental effect of the CDW on bulk superconductivity in La${}_{1.875}$Ba${}_{0.125}$CuO${}_4$. Using tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) measurements, we find evidence for dynamic layer decoupling in PDW phase. Our results establish irradiation-induced disorder as a particularly relevant tuning parameter for the many families of superconductors with coexisting density waves, which we demonstrate on superconductors such as the dichalcogenides and Lu${}_5$Ir${}_4$Si${}_{10}$.

10 pages, 7 figures

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• Charge density wave and superconductivity competition in Lu${}_5$Ir${}_4$Si${}_{10}$ : a proton irradiation study
• Superconductivity near the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit in the high-entropy alloy superconductor (ScZrNb)${}_{1-x}$(RhPd)${}_x$ with a CsCl-type lattice
• Electronic Correlations and Evolution of the Charge-Density Wave in the Kagome Metals $A$V${}_3$Sb${}_5$ ($A$ = K, Rb, Cs)
• Criticality Across the Energy Spectrum from Random, Artificial Gravitational Lensing in Two-Dimensional Dirac Superconductors
• Ingredients for Generalized Models of $\kappa$-Phase Organic Charge-Transfer Salts: A Review
• High-resolution real-space evaluation of the self-energy operator of disordered lattices: Gade singularity, spin-orbit effects and p-wave superconductivity
• Evolution of charge density waves from three-dimensional to quasi-two-dimensional in Kagome superconductors Cs(V${}_{1-x}{M}_x$)${}_3$Sb${}_5$ ($M$ = Nb, Ta)
• Possible unconventional pairing in $(\text{Ca,Sr}{)}_3(\text{Ir,Rh}{)}_4{\text{Sn}}_{13}$ superconductors revealed by controlling disorder
• Topological Doping and Superconductivity in Cuprates: An Experimental Perspective
• Geodesic geometry of 2+1-D Dirac materials subject to artificial, quenched gravitational singularities
• Disorder-dependent superconducting pairing symmetry in doped graphene
• Tuning of Charge Order by Uniaxial Stress in a Cuprate Superconductor
• Defect-engineered, universal kinematic correlations between superconductivity and Fermi liquid transport
• Thermodynamics of the disordered Hubbard model studied via numerical linked-cluster expansions
• Evolution of magnetic stripes under uniaxial stress in La${}_{1.885}$Ba${}_{0.115}$CuO${}_4$ studied by neutron scattering
• Impact of charge-density-wave pattern on the superconducting gap in V-based kagome superconductors
• Enhancement of the Curie temperature in single crystalline ferromagnetic LaCrGe${}_3$ by electron irradiation-induced disorder
• How spectrum-wide quantum criticality protects surface states of topological superconductors from Anderson localization: Quantum Hall plateau transitions (almost) all the way down
• Incommensurability-induced sub-ballistic narrow-band-states in twisted bilayer graphene
• Two-Dimensional Phase-Fluctuating Superconductivity in Bulk-Crystalline NdO${}_{0.5}$F${}_{0.5}$BiS${}_2$
• Coherent cellular dynamical mean-field theory: a real-space quantum embedding approach to disorder in strongly correlated electron systems
• Increasing the stability of a superfluid in a rotating necklace potential
• The attractive Hubbard model as an $SO(3)$ system of competing phases: supersolid order and its thermal melting