Magnetism, superconductivity and coupling in cuprate heterostructures probed by low-energy muon-spin rotation

TL;DR

This study uses low-energy muon-spin rotation to investigate magnetic and superconducting behaviors in cuprate heterostructures, revealing induced superfluid density in PrBa2Cu3O7 layers without disturbing their antiferromagnetic order.

Contribution

It demonstrates the ability to induce superfluid density in semiconducting layers of cuprate heterostructures while preserving their magnetic order, using muon-spin rotation techniques.

Findings

Superfluid density can be induced in PrBa2Cu3O7 layers.

Antiferromagnetic order remains unaffected by the superconducting proximity.

Magnetic-field profiles reveal the coupling between layers.

Abstract

We present a low-energy muon-spin-rotation study of the magnetic and superconducting properties of YBa2Cu3O7/PrBa2Cu3O7 trilayer and bilayer heterostructures. By determining the magnetic-field profiles throughout these structures we show that a finite superfluid density can be induced in otherwise semiconducting PrBa2Cu3O7 layers when juxtaposed to YBa2Cu3O7 "electrodes" while the intrinsic antiferromagnetic order is unaffected.