Electron-Doped Sr2IrO4: An Analogue of Hole-Doped Cuprate Superconductors Demonstrated by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Sr2IrO4 was predicted to be a high-temperature superconductor upon electron doping since it highly resembles the cuprates in crystal structure, electronic structure, and magnetic coupling constants. Here, we report a scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) study of Sr2IrO4 with surface...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. X 2015-11, Vol.5 (4)
Main Authors: Yan, Y J, Ren, M Q, Xu, H C, Xie, B P, Tao, R, Choi, H Y, Lee, N, Choi, Y J, Zhang, T, Feng, D L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crystal structure
Cuprates
Density of states
Diamagnetism
Doping
Electron states
Electronic properties
Electronic structure
Electrons
Energy gap
High temperature superconductors
Line spectra
Low temperature
Microscopy
Monolayers
Potassium
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Shape
Spectrum analysis
Superconductivity
Temperature
Transition metal oxides
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Summary:Sr2IrO4 was predicted to be a high-temperature superconductor upon electron doping since it highly resembles the cuprates in crystal structure, electronic structure, and magnetic coupling constants. Here, we report a scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) study of Sr2IrO4 with surface electron doping by depositing potassium (K) atoms. We find that as the electron doping increases, the system gradually evolves from an insulating state to a normal metallic state, via a pseudogaplike phase, and a phase with a sharp, V-shaped low-energy gap with about 95% loss of density of state (DOS) at EF . At certain K coverage (0.5–0.6 monolayer), the magnitude of the low-energy gap is 25–30 meV, and it closes at around 50 K. Our observations show that the electron-doped Sr2IrO4 remarkably resembles hole-doped cuprate superconductors.
ISSN:2160-3308
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevX.5.041018