Observation of an Isotope Shift in the Superconducting Transition Temperature of La_1.85Sr_0.15CuO₄

Author(s)

Tanya A. Faltens, University of California - Berkeley
William K. Ham, University of California - Berkeley
Steven W. Keller, University of California - Berkeley
Kevin J. Leary, University of California - Berkeley
James N. Michaels, University of California - Berkeley
Angelica M. Stacy, University of California - Berkeley
Hans Conrad zur Loye, University of South Carolina - ColumbiaFollow
Donald E. Morris
T W. Barbee III, University of California - Berkeley
Marvin L. Cohen, University of California - Berkeley
Cohen S. Hoen, University of California - Berkeley
A Zettl, University of California - Berkeley

Document Type

Article

Subject Area(s)

Chemistry

Abstract

An oxygen isotope shift is observed in superconducting La_1.85Sr_0.15CuO₄ when ¹⁸O is substituted partially for ¹⁶O; the superconducting transition temperature T_c is lowered by 0.3 to 1.0 K in different samples. We examine these results using conventioanl phonon-mediated BCS theory and conclude that, for La_1.85Sr_0.15CuO₄, phonons play an important role in the pairing mechanism.

Publication Info

Published in Physical Review Letters, Volume 59, Issue 8, 1987, pages 915-918.

Rights

© 1987 The American Physical Society

Publisher's Version: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.59.915

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.59.915

PACS: 74.70.Ya, 74.30.-e