Superconductivity proximate to antiferromagnetism in a copper-oxide monolayer grown on Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$

TL;DR

This study explains the nodeless superconducting gap observed in a copper-oxide monolayer on Bi2212 as a result of d-wave superconductivity influenced by antiferromagnetic proximity, rather than intrinsic to the CuO2 layers.

Contribution

First-principles calculations show the T-CuO monolayer is more stable and suggests the nodeless gap arises from d-wave superconductivity near antiferromagnetic order, not intrinsic to the layers.

Findings

T-CuO monolayer is more stable than CuO2 structure.

Doped Cu sublattice exhibits d-wave superconductivity.

Antiferromagnetic proximity induces a full superconducting gap.

Abstract

A nodeless superconducting (SC) gap was reported in a recent scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiment of a copper-oxide monolayer grown on the Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ (Bi2212) substrate [Y. Zhong {\it et al.}, Sci. Bull. {\bf 61}, 1239 (2016)], which is in stark contrast to the nodal d-wave pairing gap in the bulk cuprates. Motivated by this experiment, we first show with first-principles calculations that the tetragonal CuO (T-CuO) monolayer on the Bi2212 substrate is more stable than the commonly postulated CuO$_{2}$ structure. The T-CuO monolayer is composed of two CuO$_2$ layers sharing the same O atoms. The band structure is obtained by first-principles calculations, and its strong electron correlation is treated with the renormalized mean-field theory. We argue that one CuO$_2$ sublattice is hole doped while the other sublattice remains half filled and may have antiferromagnetic (AF) order. The doped Cu sublattice can show d-wave SC; however, its proximity to the AF Cu sublattice induces a spin-dependent hopping, which splits the Fermi surface and may lead to a full SC gap. Therefore, the nodeless SC gap observed in the experiment could be accounted for by the d-wave SC proximity to an AF order, thus it is extrinsic rather than intrinsic to the CuO$_2$ layers.