Possible field-tuned SIT in high-Tc superconductors: implications for pairing at high magnetic fields

TL;DR

This paper suggests that local pairing amplitude persists in high-Tc superconductors even in high magnetic fields where they appear resistive, implying a possible field-tuned superconductor-insulator transition similar to amorphous InOx films.

Contribution

It proposes a field-tuned SIT in high-Tc superconductors based on analogies with InOx films, highlighting the persistence of local pairing in high magnetic fields.

Findings

Local pairing persists into the dissipative state of HTSCs.

High magnetic fields do not necessarily destroy local pairing.

Analogies with InOx films support the SIT scenario.

Abstract

The behavior of some high temperature superconductors (HTSC) such as $\rm La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}$ and $\rm Bi_{2}Sr_{2-x}La_xCuO_{6+\delta}$, at very high magnetic field, is similar to that of thin films of amorphous InOx near the magnetic field-tuned superconductor-insulator transition. Analyzing the InOx data at high fields in terms of persisting local pairing amplitude, we argue by analogy that local pairing amplitude also persists well into the dissipative state of the HTSCs, the regime commonly denoted as the "normal state" in very high magnetic field experiments.