Nanoscale interplay of strain and doping in a high-temperature superconductor.

Zeljkovic, Ilija; Nieminen, Jouko; Huang, Dennis; Chang, Tay-Rong; He, Yang; Jeng, Horng-Tay; Xu, Zhijun; Wen, Jinsheng et al. · Nano Lett · 2014

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The highest-temperature superconductors are electronically inhomogeneous at the nanoscale, suggesting the existence of a local variable that could be harnessed to enhance the superconducting pairing. Here we report the relationship between local doping and local strain in the cuprate superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+x). We use scanning tunneling microscopy to discover that the crucial oxygen dopants are periodically distributed in correlation with local strain. Our picoscale investigation of the intraunit-cell positions of all oxygen dopants provides essential structural input for a complete microscopic theory.

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