Open AccessDetermination of the symmetry of the superconducting pairing state and formation of a low-temperature normal metallic state in YBCO by electron irradiation
Author(s) -
J. Giapintzakis,
D. M. Ginsberg,
Kirk
Publication year - 1995
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/510599
Subject(s) - superconductivity , condensed matter physics , pairing , anisotropy , impurity , electron , metal , zero point energy , electron pair , zero (linguistics) , materials science , planar , symmetry (geometry) , physics , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , linguistics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , computer graphics (images) , computer science
A key difference between a d-wave and an anisotropic s-wave superconductor is the expected effect of nonmagnetic point defects on T{sub c}. T{sub c} of the former becomes zero whereas T{sub c} of the latter attains a nonzero constant value beyond a critical concentration of impurities. We report the first observation that T{sub c} of an YBCO single crystal becomes zero after 4.1% of the planar oxygens O(2,3) are displaced by 400keV electron irradiation along the c-axis. Our data therefore indicate that YBCO is a d-wave superconductor. We also report evidence of a disorder-induced superconductor-to-normal-metal transition