Author: ["Lu Li","J. G. Checkelsky","Seiki Komiya","Yoichi Ando","N. P. Ong"]
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Abstract
In copper oxide superconductors, the lightly doped (small dopant concentration, x) region is of major interest1,2 because superconductivity, antiferromagnetism and the pseudogap state come together near a critical doping value, xc. But the way in which superconductivity is destroyed as x is decreased at very low temperatures, T, is not clear3,4,5,6,7. Does the pair condensate vanish abruptly at a critical value, xc? Or is phase coherence of the condensate destroyed by spontaneous vortices—as is the case at elevated T (refs 8, 9, 10)? So far, magnetization data at low T are very sparse in this region of the phase diagram. Here, we report torque magnetometry measurements on La2−xSrxCuO4, which show that, in zero magnetic field, quantum phase fluctuations destroy superconductivity at xc≈0.055. The phase-disordered condensate survives to x=0.03. In finite field H, the vortex solid-to-liquid transition occurs at H lower than the depairing field, Hc2. The resulting phase diagram reveals the large fraction of the x–H plane occupied by the quantum vortex liquid.Cite this article
Li, L., Checkelsky, J., Komiya, S. et al. Low-temperature vortex liquid in La2−xSrxCuO4. Nature Phys 3, 311–314 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys563 