Scientists see energy gap modulations in a cuprate superconductor

(DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory) Scientists studying high-Tc superconductors at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have definitive evidence for the existence of a state of matter known as a pair density wave -- first predicted by theorists some 50 years ago. Their results show that this phase coexists with superconductivity in a well-known bismuth-based copper-oxide superconductor.