journal article·2024-06Open access

Evidence for d-wave superconductivity of infinite-layer nickelates from low-energy electrodynamics

Bing Cheng, Di Cheng, Kyuho Lee, Liang Luo, Zhuoyu Chen, Yonghun Lee, Bai Yang Wang, Martin Mootz, Ilias E. Perakis, Zhi-Xun Shen, Harold Y. Hwang, Jigang Wang

Nature Materials· Volume 23· Issue 6

Abstract

The discovery of superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelates established another category of unconventional superconductors that shares structural and electronic similarities with cuprates. However, key issues of the superconducting pairing symmetry, gap amplitude and superconducting fluctuations are yet to be addressed. Here we utilize static and ultrafast terahertz spectroscopy to address these. We demonstrate that the equilibrium terahertz conductivity and non-equilibrium terahertz responses of an optimally Sr-doped nickelate film (superconducting transition temperature of Tc = 17 K) are in line with the electrodynamics of d-wave superconductivity in the dirty limit. The gap-to-Tc ratio (2Δ/kBTc) is found to be 3.4, indicating that the superconductivity falls in the weak coupling regime. In addition, we observed substantial superconducting fluctuations near Tc that do not extend into the deep normal state as the optimally hole-doped cuprates do. Our results support a d-wave system that closely resembles the electron-doped cuprates.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism · Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials · Advanced Condensed Matter Physics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

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