Suppression of Superfluid Density and the Pseudogap State in the Cuprates by Impurities

Abstract

We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to study magnetic Fe impurities intentionally doped into the high-temperature superconductor Bi[subscript 2]Sr[subscript 2]CaCu[subscript 2]O[subscript 8+δ]. Our spectroscopic measurements reveal that Fe impurities introduce low-lying resonances in the density of states at Ω[subscript 1] ≈4 meV and Ω[subscript 2] ≈15 meV, allowing us to determine that, despite having a large magnetic moment, potential scattering of quasiparticles by Fe impurities dominates magnetic scattering. In addition, using high-resolution spatial characterizations of the local density of states near and away from Fe impurities, we detail the spatial extent of impurity-affected regions as well as provide a local view of impurity-induced effects on the superconducting and pseudogap states. Our studies of Fe impurities, when combined with a reinterpretation of earlier STM work in the context of a two-gap scenario, allow us to present a unified view of the atomic-scale effects of elemental impurities on the pseudogap and superconducting states in hole-doped cuprates; this may help resolve a previously assumed dichotomy between the effects of magnetic and nonmagnetic impurities in these materials.