Large in-plane elastic scattering due to Cu-vacancies in an electron doped superconductor

High transition temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity arises in cuprate materials when sufficient holes or electrons are doped into the CuO2 layers of their antiferromagnetic (AF) insulating parent compounds. While hole doping immediately turns the material superconducting, mere electron doping is not enough to induce superconductivity in some of the cuprates which need to be annealed in a low oxygen environment in order to induce superconductivity. In this work we analyse STM spectra on an electron doped superconductor, Pr1-xLaCexCuO4±δ(PLCCO), and show that compared to their hole doped counterparts, these electron-doped materials show a significant in-plane elastic scattering component. Since the copper deficiencies are intrinsic to PLCCO these could be the main source of the high in-plane scattering rate.