Pauli-limit upper critical field of high-temperature superconductor La1.84Sr0.16CuO4

Daisuke Nakamura; Tadashi Adachi; Keisuke Omori; Yoji Koike; Shojiro Takeyama

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-52973-1

Pauli-limit upper critical field of high-temperature superconductor La_1.84Sr_0.16CuO₄

Sci Rep. 2019 Nov 18;9(1):16949. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52973-1.

Authors

Daisuke Nakamura¹, Tadashi Adachi², Keisuke Omori³, Yoji Koike³, Shojiro Takeyama⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8581, Japan. dnakamura@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
² Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Sophia University, 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8554, Japan.
³ Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-05 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8579, Japan.
⁴ Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8581, Japan.

Abstract

The upper critical field of a cuprate high-temperature superconductor, La_1.84Sr_0.16CuO₄, was investigated by high-frequency self-resonant contactless electrical conductivity measurements in magnetic fields up to 102 T. An irreversible transition was observed at 85 T (T = 4.2 K), defined as the upper critical field. The temperature-dependent upper critical field was argued on the basis of the Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg theory. The Pauli-limiting pair-breaking process with a small contribution of the spin-orbit coupling explained the first-order phase transition exhibiting a hysteresis observed at low temperatures.

Grants and funding

16K17737/MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)