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Research Article

Optimum inhomogeneity of local lattice distortions in La2CuO4+y

Nicola Poccia, Alessandro Ricci, Gaetano Campi, Michela Fratini, Alessandro Puri, Daniele Di Gioacchino, Augusto Marcelli, Michael Reynolds, Manfred Burghammer, Naurang Lal Saini, Gabriel Aeppli, and Antonio Bianconi
PNAS September 25, 2012 109 (39) 15685-15690; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1208492109
Nicola Poccia
aDepartment of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy;
bEuropean Synchrotron Radiation Facility, B.P. 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France;
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Alessandro Ricci
aDepartment of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy;
cDeutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany;
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Gaetano Campi
dInstitute of Crystallography, CNR, Via Salaria Km 29.300, Monterotondo Stazione, Roma I-00015, Italy;
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Michela Fratini
aDepartment of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy;
eFermi Center, Piazzale del Viminale, 00187 Roma, Italy;
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Alessandro Puri
fIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, P.O. Box 13, 00044 Frascati, Italy;
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Daniele Di Gioacchino
fIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, P.O. Box 13, 00044 Frascati, Italy;
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Augusto Marcelli
fIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, P.O. Box 13, 00044 Frascati, Italy;
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Michael Reynolds
bEuropean Synchrotron Radiation Facility, B.P. 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France;
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Manfred Burghammer
bEuropean Synchrotron Radiation Facility, B.P. 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France;
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Naurang Lal Saini
aDepartment of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy;
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Gabriel Aeppli
gLondon Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, 17–19 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH, United Kingdom;
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Antonio Bianconi
aDepartment of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy;
hRome International Centre for Materials Science Superstripes (RICMASS), Via dei Sabelli 119A, 00185 Roma, Italy; and
iMediterranean Institute of Fundamental Physics, Via Appia Nuova 31, 00040 Marino, Italy
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  • For correspondence: antonio.bianconi@roma1.infn.it
  1. Edited by T. H. Geballe, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved August 7, 2012 (received for review May 21, 2012)

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Abstract

Electronic functionalities in materials from silicon to transition metal oxides are, to a large extent, controlled by defects and their relative arrangement. Outstanding examples are the oxides of copper, where defect order is correlated with their high superconducting transition temperatures. The oxygen defect order can be highly inhomogeneous, even in optimal superconducting samples, which raises the question of the nature of the sample regions where the order does not exist but which nonetheless form the “glue” binding the ordered regions together. Here we use scanning X-ray microdiffraction (with a beam 300 nm in diameter) to show that for La2CuO4+y, the glue regions contain incommensurate modulated local lattice distortions, whose spatial extent is most pronounced for the best superconducting samples. For an underdoped single crystal with mobile oxygen interstitials in the spacer La2O2+y layers intercalated between the CuO2 layers, the incommensurate modulated local lattice distortions form droplets anticorrelated with the ordered oxygen interstitials, and whose spatial extent is most pronounced for the best superconducting samples. In this simplest of high temperature superconductors, there are therefore not one, but two networks of ordered defects which can be tuned to achieve optimal superconductivity. For a given stoichiometry, the highest transition temperature is obtained when both the ordered oxygen and lattice defects form fractal patterns, as opposed to appearing in isolated spots. We speculate that the relationship between material complexity and superconducting transition temperature Tc is actually underpinned by a fundamental relation between Tc and the distribution of ordered defect networks supported by the materials.

  • granular superconductors
  • multiband superconductivity in density wave metals
  • scale-free heterogeneity
  • imaging phase separation
  • X-ray illumination

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed: antonio.bianconi{at}roma1.infn.it.
  • Author contributions: N.P., A.R., G.C., M.F., N.L.S., A.B., and G.A. performed the experiments and followed the data analysis; N.P., A.P., D.d.G., and A.M. did the transport measurements; M.R. and M. B. provided the XRD station at ESRF; A.B., G.A., N.P., M.F., G.C., and A.M. planned the experiment and the data analysis and together wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1208492109/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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Optimum inhomogeneity in La2CuO4+y
Nicola Poccia, Alessandro Ricci, Gaetano Campi, Michela Fratini, Alessandro Puri, Daniele Di Gioacchino, Augusto Marcelli, Michael Reynolds, Manfred Burghammer, Naurang Lal Saini, Gabriel Aeppli, Antonio Bianconi
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2012, 109 (39) 15685-15690; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208492109

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Optimum inhomogeneity in La2CuO4+y
Nicola Poccia, Alessandro Ricci, Gaetano Campi, Michela Fratini, Alessandro Puri, Daniele Di Gioacchino, Augusto Marcelli, Michael Reynolds, Manfred Burghammer, Naurang Lal Saini, Gabriel Aeppli, Antonio Bianconi
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2012, 109 (39) 15685-15690; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208492109
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