Schematic of Pair Density Wave in Cuprate Superconductor (IMAGE)
Caption
This schematic diagram maps out the binding energy (or superconducting energy gap) of individual electrons in a copper-oxide (cuprate) superconductor as measured by a sensitive microscope scanning across the surface. The size of the blue and yellow blobs surrounding individual atoms (red rods with arrowheads indicating their spin orientations) indicates the size of the energy gap (the larger the blobs the bigger the gap and stronger the electron-pair binding at that location). Note how when scanning across horizontal rows, the pattern increases to a maximum, then decreases to a minimum (no blobs), increases to another maximum with the opposite orientation (yellow and blue blobs switched) and then a minimum again, repeating this pattern every eight rows. These modulations are the first direct evidence of a "pair density wave," a state of matter that coexists with superconductivity and may play a role in its emergence.
Credit
Brookhaven National Laboratory
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