Engineering underdoped CuO$_2$ nanoribbons in nm-thick $a$-axis YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-δ}$ films

Riccardo Arpaia; Núria Alcalde-Herraiz; Andrea D'Alessio; Evgeny Stepantsov; Eric Wahlberg; Alexei Kalaboukhov; Thilo Bauch; Floriana Lombardi

doi:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.8.044803

paper

Engineering underdoped CuO $_{2}$ nanoribbons in nm-thick $a$ -axis YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{7 - δ}$ films

arXiv:2207.04541 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.8.044803

Abstract

In underdoped cuprate high $T_{c}$ superconductors, various local orders and symmetry breaking states, in addition to superconductivity, reside in the CuO $_{2}$ planes. The confinement of the CuO $_{2}$ planes can therefore play a fundamental role in modifying the hierarchy between the various orders and their intertwining with superconductivity. Here we present the growth of $a$ -axis oriented YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{7 - δ}$ films, spanning the whole underdoped side of the phase diagram. In these samples, the CuO $_{2}$ planes are confined by the film thickness, effectively forming unit-cell-thick nanoribbons. The unidirectional confinement at the nanoscale enhances the in-plane anisotropy of the films. By X-ray diffraction and resistance vs temperature measurements, we have discovered the suppression of the orthorhombic-to-tetragonal transition at low dopings, and a very high anisotropy of the normal state resistance in the $b$ - $c$ plane, the latter being connected to a weak coupling between adjacent CuO $_{2}$ nanoribbons. These findings show that the samples we have grown represent a novel system, different from the bulk, where future experiments can possibly shed light on the rich and mysterious physics occurring within the CuO $_{2}$ planes.

Engineering underdoped CuO2​ nanoribbons in nm-thick a-axis YBa2​Cu3​O7−δ​ films

Abstract

References in corpus (31)

Engineering underdoped CuO $_{2}$ nanoribbons in nm-thick $a$ -axis YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{7 - δ}$ films