No Arabic abstract
We have investigated the in-plane $I(V)$ characteristics and the Josephson vortex flow resistance in high-quality La-free Bi$_{2+x}$Sr$_{2-x}$CuO$_{6+delta}$ (Bi2201) single crystals in parallel and tilted magnetic fields at temperatures down to 40 mK. For parallel magnetic fields below the resistive upper critical field $H^{*}_{c2}$, the $I(V)$ characteristic obey a power-law with a smooth change with increasing magnetic-field of the exponent from above 5 down to 1. In contrast to the double-layer cuprate Bi2212, the observed smooth change suggests that there is no change in the mechanism of dissipation (no Kosterlitz-Thouless transition) over the range of temperatures investigated. At small angles between the applied field and the $ab$-plane, prominent current steps in the $I(V)$ characteristics and periodic oscillations of Josephson-vortex flow resistance are observed. While the current steps are periodic in the voltage at constant fields, the voltage position of the steps, together with the flux-flow voltage, increases nonlinearly with magnetic field. The $ab$-flow resistance oscillates as a function of field with a constant period over a wide range of magnetic fields and temperatures. The current steps in the $I(V)$ characteristics and the flow resistance oscillations can be linked to the motion of Josephson vortices across layers.
The temperature dependence of the nonlinear current-voltage ($I$-$V$) characteristics in highly underdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ ($x=0.07$ and 0.08) thick films has been studied in both zero and perpendicular magnetic fields $H$. Power-law behavior of $V(I)$ is found for both $H=0$ and $H eq 0$. The critical current $I_{c}$ was extracted, and its temperature and magnetic field dependences were studied in detail. The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics dominates the nonlinear $I$-$V$ near the superconducting transition at $H=0$, and it continues to contribute up to a characteristic temperature $T_x(H)$. Nonlinear $I$-$V$ persists up to an even higher temperature $T_{h}(H)$ due to the depinning of vortices.
The specific heat $C$ of the cuprate superconductors La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ and Bi$_{2+y}$Sr$_{2-x-y}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+delta}$ was measured at low temperature (down to $0.5~{rm K}$), for dopings $p$ close to $p^star$, the critical doping for the onset of the pseudogap phase. A magnetic field up to $35~{rm T}$ was applied to suppress superconductivity, giving direct access to the normal state at low temperature, and enabling a determination of $C_e$, the electronic contribution to the normal-state specific heat, at $T to 0$. In La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ at $x=p = 0.22$, $0.24$ and $0.25$, $C_e / T = 15-16~{rm mJmol}^{-1}{rm K}^{-2}$ at $T = 2~{rm K}$, values that are twice as large as those measured at higher doping ($p > 0.3$) and lower doping ($p < 0.15$). This confirms the presence of a broad peak in the doping dependence of $C_e$ at $p^starsimeq 0.19$, as previously reported for samples in which superconductivity was destroyed by Zn impurities. Moreover, at those three dopings, we find a logarithmic growth as $T to 0$, such that $C_e / T sim {rm B}ln(T_0/T)$. The peak vs $p$ and the logarithmic dependence vs $T$ are the two typical thermodynamic signatures of quantum criticality. In the very different cuprate Bi$_{2+y}$Sr$_{2-x-y}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+delta}$, we again find that $C_e / T sim {rm B}ln(T_0/T$) at $p simeq p^star$, strong evidence that this $ln(1/T)$ dependence - first discovered in the cuprates La$_{1.8-x}$Eu$_{0.2}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ and La$_{1.6-x}$Nd$_{0.4}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ - is a universal property of the pseudogap critical point. All four materials display similar values of the $rm B$ coefficient, indicating that they all belong to the same universality class.
We observe apparent hole pockets in the Fermi surfaces of single-layer Bi-based cuprate superconductors from angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES). From detailed low-energy electron diffraction measurements and an analysis of the ARPES polarization-dependence, we show that these pockets are not intrinsic, but arise from multiple overlapping superstructure replicas of the main and shadow bands. We further demonstrate that the hole pockets reported recently from ARPES [Meng et al, Nature 462, 335 (2009)] have a similar structural origin, and are inconsistent with an intrinsic hole pocket associated with the electronic structure of a doped CuO$_2$ plane. The nature of the Fermi surface topology in the enigmatic pseudogap phase therefore remains an open question.
We have performed angle-resolved photoemission and core-level x-ray photoemission studies of the single-layer cuprate Bi$_2$Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+delta}$ (Bi2201) and revealed the doping evolution of the electronic structure from the lightly-doped to optimally-doped regions. We have observed the formation of the dispersive quasi-particle band, evolution of the Fermi ``arc into the Fermi surface and the shift of the chemical potential with hole doping as in other cuprates. The doping evolution in Bi2201 is similar to that in Ca$_{2-x}$Na$_{x}$CuO$_{2}$Cl$_2$ (Na-CCOC), where a rapid chemical potential shift toward the lower Hubbard band of the parent insulator has been observed, but is quite different from that in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ (LSCO), where the chemical potential does not shift, yet the dispersive band and the Fermi arc/surface are formed around the Fermi level already in the lightly-doped region. The (underlying) Fermi surface shape and band dispersions are quantitatively analyzed using tight-binding fit, and the deduced next-nearest-neighbor hopping integral $t$ also confirm the similarity to Na-CCOC and the difference from LSCO.
We present results of magnetic neutron diffraction experiments on the co-doped super-oxygenated La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4+y) (LSCO+O) system with x=0.09. The spin-density wave has been studied and we find long-range incommensurate antiferromagnetic order below T_N coinciding with the superconducting ordering temperature T_c=40 K. The incommensurability value is consistent with a hole-doping of n_h~1/8, but in contrast to non-superoxygenated La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) with hole-doping close to n_h ~ 1/8 the magnetic order parameter is not field-dependent. We attribute this to the magnetic order being fully developed in LSCO+O as in the other striped lanthanum-cuprate systems.