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From quantum matter to high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxides

Nature volume 518, pages 179–186 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in the copper oxides in 1986 triggered a huge amount of innovative scientific inquiry. In the almost three decades since, much has been learned about the novel forms of quantum matter that are exhibited in these strongly correlated electron systems. A qualitative understanding of the nature of the superconducting state itself has been achieved. However, unresolved issues include the astonishing complexity of the phase diagram, the unprecedented prominence of various forms of collective fluctuations, and the simplicity and insensitivity to material details of the ‘normal’ state at elevated temperatures.

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Figure 1: Tc versus time.
Figure 2: Phase diagram.
Figure 3: Crystal structure.
Figure 4: Fermi surface, Fermi arcs and gap functions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Yazdani for many discussions. S.A.K. was supported by the US DOE, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering, under Award No. DE-AC02-76SF00515 at Stanford University. M.N. was supported by the Center for Emergent Superconductivity, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US DOE, Basic Energy Sciences, under Award No. DE-AC0298CH1088. J.Z. acknowledges financial support by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research/Ministry of Science and Education (NWO/OCW), and a grant from the Templeton foundation: the opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany,

    B. Keimer

  2. Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    S. A. Kivelson

  3. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, 60439, Illinois, USA

    M. R. Norman

  4. Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan,

    S. Uchida

  5. Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Universiteit Leiden, PO Box 9506, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands,

    J. Zaanen

Authors
  1. B. Keimer
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  2. S. A. Kivelson
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  3. M. R. Norman
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  4. S. Uchida
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  5. J. Zaanen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the text. S.U. prepared the figures.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Zaanen.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Keimer, B., Kivelson, S., Norman, M. et al. From quantum matter to high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxides. Nature 518, 179–186 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14165

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