2007/08/22 by J. Laverock, S. B. Dugdale, J. A. Duffy +11 · 5 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.76.052509
published as Physical Review B 76, 052509 (2007)
openalex publication_date 2007/08/22 · arxiv created 2007/08/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The surprise discovery of superconductivity below 5\phantom\rule0.3em0exK in sodium cobalt oxides when hydrated with water has caught the attention of experimentalists and theorists alike. Most explanations for its occurence have focused heavily on the properties of some small elliptically shaped pockets predicted to be the electronically dominant Fermi surface sheet, but direct attempts to look for them have instead cast serious doubts over their existence. Here we present evidence that these pockets do indeed exist, based on bulk measurements of the electron momentum distribution in unhydrated and hydrated sodium cobalt oxides using the technique of x-ray Compton scattering.