Asia Pacific Physics Week 2023 (APPW2023)

Monday, Nov. 6, 2023

3:00 PM - 3:30 PM  C. N. Yang Award Talk  Danfeng Li (City University of Hong Kong) 

‘Unconventional’ Superconductivity in Infinite-Layer Nickelates

Danfeng Li

Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China

Developing new techniques to design and discover novel superconductors, especially those with unusual symmetries of superconducting order parameters and/or exotic pairing mechanisms, opens new doors to future applications in quantum devices. The recent discovery of superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelates has engendered reviving interest in the study of a cuprate-analog system [1]. Notably, superconducting nickelates display signatures of intriguing similarities and distinctions to the cuprates in their phase diagrams, proximity to strongly correlated electronic phases [2], antiferromagnetic interactions [3], superconducting anisotropy [4], etc. Partially owing to the non-trivial challenges in materials synthesis and their thin-film nature, experimental demonstration of the intrinsic properties of this materials family has still been limited [5]. In this talk, I will introduce this new family of superconductors synthesized by a soft-chemistry approach and highlight the key aspects of their electronic and magnetic structure. I will present our latest developments in synthetic approaches to the materials system and probing of their distinct features [6]. Finally, I will suggest how new applications of kinetic-based synthetic approaches in oxide heterostructures provide a broad opportunity to create novel quantum systems in previously inaccessible ways.

[1] D. Li et al., Nature 572, 624 (2019).
[2] D. Li et al., Physical Review Letters 125, 27001 (2020).

[3] H. Lu et al., Science 373, 213 (2021).

[4] B. Y. Wang et al., Nature Physics 17, 473 (2021).

[5] K. Lee et al., APL Materials 8, 041107 (2020).

[6] A. Raji et al., arXiv:2308.02855 (2023).