Effects of Zn substitution in La2-xSrxCu1-yZnyO4: interplay among superconductivity, pseudogap, and stripe order

Abstract

The effect of Zn substitution on the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, was investigated for the La2-xSrxCu1-yZnyO4 (Zn-LSCO) compounds over a wide range of hole concentration, p (= x), and Zn content (y) in the CuO2 plane. Zn induced rate of suppression of Tc, dTc/dy, was found to be strongly p-dependent and showed a systematic variation with hole concentration, except in the vicinity of p ~ 0.12, i.e., near the so-called 1/8th anomaly where the charge/spin stripe correlations are at its strongest in La2-xSrxCuO4. Near p ~ 0.12, the static striped charge ordering is widely believed to dominate the T-p phase diagram. dTc/dy decreased strongly around this hole concentration i.e., Zn became less effective in degrading Tc near p ~ 0.12. This observation is indicative of an intricate and competing interplay among the superconducting, pseudogap, and stripe correlations in Zn-LSCO.