2020/05/13 by Jacob P. Ruf, J. P. Ruf, H. Paik +27 · 112 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Anisotropy #Density of states #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #Electronic structure #Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope #Fermi level #High-temperature superconductivity #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Superconducting transition temperature #Superconductivity #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20252-7
published in Nature Communications 12(1), 59 (Nature Portfolio) · 30 pages, 20 figures (including supplemental information)
arxiv created 2020/05/13 · openalex created_date 2020/05/21 · openalex publication_date 2021/01/04 · arxiv updated 2021/01/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract Superconductivity is among the most fascinating and well-studied quantum states of matter. Despite over 100 years of research, a detailed understanding of how features of the normal-state electronic structure determine superconducting properties has remained elusive. For instance, the ability to deterministically enhance the superconducting transition temperature by design, rather than by serendipity, has been a long sought-after goal in condensed matter physics and materials science, but achieving this objective may require new tools, techniques and approaches. Here, we report the transmutation of a normal metal into a superconductor through the application of epitaxial strain. We demonstrate that synthesizing RuO 2 thin films on (110)-oriented TiO 2 substrates enhances the density of states near the Fermi level, which stabilizes superconductivity under strain, and suggests that a promising strategy to create new transition-metal superconductors is to apply judiciously chosen anisotropic strains that redistribute carriers within the low-energy manifold of d orbitals.