Anomalous Enhancement of the Superconducting Transition Temperature in Electron-Doped Cuprate Heterostructures

Abstract: The superconducting transition temperature $T_{c}$ of multilayers of electron-doped cuprates, composed of underdoped (or undoped) and overdoped La% ${2-x}$Ce${x}$CuO${4}$ (LCCO) and Pr${2-x}$Ce${x}$CuO${4}$ (PCCO) thin films, is found to increase significantly with respect to the $T_{c}$ of the corresponding single-phase films. By investigating the critical current density of superlattices with different doping levels and layer thicknesses, we find that the $T_{c}$ enhancement is caused by a redistribution of charge over an anomalously large distance.