Charge ordering in the electron-doped superconductor Nd 2– x Ce x CuO 4

Abstract

Finding order in exotic superconductors Physicists can coax some copper-oxide compounds into becoming superconducting by chemically adding extra charge carriers: holes or electrons. Concentrating on hole-doped materials, researchers have found a host of different phases in the neighborhood of or co-existing with superconductivity. One such phase is a modulation in charge density [a charge density wave (CDW)] that appears to be ubiquitous in hole-doped families. Da Silva Neto et al. now show that a similar phase exists in the electron-doped material Nd 2- x Ce x CuO 4 . As they cooled the material, the authors first detected the CDW at temperatures considerably higher than in the hole-doped copper-oxides. Science , this issue p. 282