X-ray Photoelectron Studies of High-temperature Superconductors: Evidence for the Importance of Alkaline Earth Metals

Abstract

All high·temperature superconducting ceramics so far studied contain alkaline-earth ions, and in all cases core-level X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows an anomalous low-binding energy peak from these ions. We argue that this may point to electron-rich alkaline earth layers. These should be highly polarisable, allowing them to facilitate uperconductivity by screening the repulsion between electrons and/or holes in the CuD layers.