No Arabic abstract
Two-particle (2-p) excitations such as spin and charge excitations play a key role in high-Tc cuprate superconductors (HTSC). On the basis of a parameter-free theory, which extends the Variational Cluster Approach (a recently developed embedded cluster method) to 2-p excitations, the magnetic excitations of HTSC are shown to be reproduced for a Hubbard model within the relevant strong-coupling regime. In particular, the resonance mode in the underdoped regime, its intensity and hour-glass dispersion are in good overall agreement with experiments.
We calculate the expected finite frequency neutron scattering intensity based on the two-sublattice collinear antiferromagnet found by recent neutron scattering experiments as well as by theoretical analysis on the iron oxypnictide LaOFeAs. We consider two types of superexchange couplings between Fe atoms: nearest-neighbor coupling J1 and next-nearest-neighbor coupling J2. We show how to distinguish experimentally between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic J1. Whereas magnetic excitations in the cuprates display a so-called resonance peak at (pi,pi) (corresponding to a saddlepoint in the magnetic spectrum) which is at a wavevector that is at least close to nesting Fermi-surface-like structures, no such corresponding excitations exist in the iron pnictides. Rather, we find saddlepoints near (pi,pi/2) and (0,pi/2)(and symmetry related points). Unlike in the cuprates, none of these vectors are close to nesting the Fermi surfaces.
We study the doping evolution of the electronic structure in the pseudogap state of high-Tc cuprate superconductors, by means of a cluster extension of the dynamical mean-field theory applied to the two-dimensional Hubbard model. The calculated single-particle excitation spectra in the strongly underdoped regime show a marked electron-hole asymmetry and reveal a s-wave pseudogap, which display a finite amplitude in all the directions in the momentum space but not always at the Fermi level: The energy location of the gap strongly depends on momentum, and in particular in the nodal region, it is above the Fermi level. With increasing hole doping, the pseudogap disappears everywhere in the momentum space. We show that the origin and the s-wave structure of the pseudogap can be ascribed to the emergence of a strong-scattering surface, which appears in the energy-momentum space close to the Mott insulator.
Two-dimensional (2D) Van Hove singularities (VHSs) associated with the saddle points or extrema of the energy dispersion usually show logarithmic divergences in the density of states (DOS). However, recent studies find that the VHSs originating from higher-order saddle-points have faster-than-logarithmic divergences, which can amplify electron correlation effects and create exotic states such as supermetals in 2D materials. Here we report the existence of high-order VHSs in the cuprates and related high-Tc superconductors and show that the anomalous divergences in their spectra are driven by the electronic dimensionality of the system being lower than the dimensionality of the lattice. The order of VHS is found to correlate with the superconducting Tc such that materials with higher order VHSs display higher Tcs. We further show that the presence of the normal and higher-order VHSs in the electronic spectrum can provide a straightforward marker for identifying the propensity of a material toward correlated phases such as excitonic insulators or supermetals. Our study opens up a new materials playground for exploring the interplay between high-order VHSs, superconducting transition temperatures and electron correlation effects in the cuprates and related high-Tc superconductors.
Recently, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) has been used to highlight an anomalously large band renormalization at high binding energies in cuprate superconductors: the high energy waterfall or high energy anomaly (HEA). This paper demonstrates, using a combination of new ARPES measurements and quantum Monte Carlo simulations, that the HEA is not simply the by-product of matrix element effects, but rather represents a cross-over from a quasiparticle band at low binding energies near the Fermi level to valence bands at higher binding energy, assumed to be of strong oxygen character, in both hole- and electron-doped cuprates. While photoemission matrix elements clearly play a role in changing the aesthetic appearance of the band dispersion, i.e. the waterfall-like behavior, they provide an inadequate description for the physics that underlies the strong band renormalization giving rise to the HEA. Model calculations of the single-band Hubbard Hamiltonian showcase the role played by correlations in the formation of the HEA and uncover significant differences in the HEA energy scale for hole- and electron-doped cuprates. In addition, this approach properly captures the transfer of spectral weight accompanying both hole and electron doping in a correlated material and provides a unifying description of the HEA across both sides of the cuprate phase diagram.
The presence of optical polarization anisotropies, such as Faraday/Kerr effects, linear birefringence, and magnetoelectric birefringence are evidence for broken symmetry states of matter. The recent discovery of a Kerr effect using near-IR light in the pseudogap phase of the cuprates can be regarded as a strong evidence for a spontaneous symmetry breaking and the existence of an anomalous long-range ordered state. In this work we present a high precision study of the polarimetry properties of the cuprates in the THz regime. While no Faraday effect was found in this frequency range to the limits of our experimental uncertainty (1.3 milli-radian or 0.07$^circ$), a small but significant polarization rotation was detected that derives from an anomalous linear dichroism. In YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_y$ the effect has a temperature onset that mirrors the pseudogap temperature T$^*$ and is enhanced in magnitude in underdoped samples. In $x=1/8$ La$_{2-x}$Ba$_{x}$CuO$_4$, the effect onsets above room temperature, but shows a dramatic enhancement near a temperature scale known to be associated with spin and charge ordered states. These features are consistent with a loss of both C$_4$ rotation and mirror symmetry in the electronic structure of the CuO$_2$ planes in the pseudogap state.