No Arabic abstract
The electron-boson spectral density function I^2ChiOmega responsible for carrier scattering of the high temperature superconductor HgBa2CuO4 (Tc = 90 K) is calculated from new data on the optical scattering rate. A maximum entropy technique is used. Published data on HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8 (Tc = 130 K) are also inverted and these new results are put in the context of other known cases. All spectra (with two notable exceptions) show a peak at an energy (Omega_r) proportional to the superconducting transition temperature Omega_r ~= 6.3 kB.Tc. This charge channel relationship follows closely the magnetic resonance seen by polarized neutron scattering, Omega_r^{neutron} ~= 5.4 kB.Tc. The amplitudes of both peaks decrease strongly with increasing temperature. In some cases, the peak at Omega_r is weak and the spectrum can have additional maxima and a background extending up to several hundred meV.
We demonstrate that most features ascribed to strong correlation effects in various spectroscopies of the cuprates are captured by a calculation of the self-energy incorporating effects of spin and charge fluctuations. The self energy is calculated over the full doping range of electron-doped cuprates from half filling to the overdoped system. The spectral function reveals four subbands, two widely split incoherent bands representing the remnant of the split Hubbard bands, and two additional coherent, spin- and charge-dressed in-gap bands split by a spin-density wave, which collapses in the overdoped regime. The incoherent features persist to high doping, producing a remnant Mott gap in the optical spectra, while transitions between the in-gap states lead to pseudogap features in the mid-infrared.
The large ($10^2 - 10^5$) and strongly temperature dependent resistive anisotropy $eta = (sigma_{ab}/sigma_c)^{1/2}$ of cuprates perhaps holds the key to understanding their normal state in-plane $sigma_{ab}$ and out-of-plane $sigma_{c}$ conductivities. It can be shown that $eta$ is determined by the ratio of the phase coherence lengths $ell_i$ in the respective directions: $sigma_{ab}/sigma_c = ell_{ab}^2/ell_{c}^2$. In layered crystals in which the out-of-plane transport is incoherent, $ell_{c}$ is fixed, equal to the interlayer spacing. As a result, the T-dependence of $eta$ is determined by that of $ell_{ab}$, and vice versa, the in-plane phase coherence length can be obtained directly by measuring the resistive anisotropy. We present data for hole-doped $YBa_2Cu_3O_y$ ($6.3 < y < 6.9$) and $Y_{1-x}Pr_xBa_2Cu_3O_{7-delta }$ ($0 < x leq 0.55$) and show that $sigma_{ab}$ of crystals with different doping levels can be well described by a two parameter universal function of the in-plane phase coherence length. In the electron-doped $Nd_{2-x}Ce_{x}CuO_{4-y}$, the dependence $sigma_{ab}(eta)$ indicates a crossover from incoherent to coherent transport in the c-direction.
The charge dynamics in weakly hole doped high temperature superconductors is studied in terms of the accurate numerical solution to a model of a single hole interacting with a quantum lattice in an antiferromagnetic background, and accurate far-infrared ellipsometry measurements. The experimentally observed two electronic bands in the infrared spectrum can be identified in terms of the interplay between the electron correlation and electron-phonon interaction resolving the long standing mystery of the mid-infrared band.
Recently, it was proposed that phonons are specularly reflected below about 0.5 K in ordinary single-crystal samples of high-T_c cuprates, and that the low-temperature thermal conductivity should be analyzed by fitting the data up to 0.5 K using an arbitrary power law. Such an analysis yields a result different from that obtained from the conventional analysis, in which the fitting is usually restricted to a region below 0.15 K. Here we show that the proposed new analysis is most likely flawed, because the specular phonon reflection means that the phonon mean free path ell gets LONGER than the mean sample width, while the estimated ell is actually much SHORTER than the mean sample width above 0.15 K.
The nature of the pseudogap phase of cuprates remains a major puzzle. Although there are indications that this phase breaks various symmetries, there is no consensus on its fundamental nature. Although Fermi-surface, transport and thermodynamic signatures of the pseudogap phase are reminiscent of a transition into a phase with antiferromagnetic order, there is no evidence for an associated long-range magnetic order. Here we report measurements of the thermal Hall conductivity $kappa_{rm xy}$ in the normal state of four different cuprates (Nd-LSCO, Eu-LSCO, LSCO, and Bi2201) and show that a large negative $kappa_{rm xy}$ signal is a property of the pseudogap phase, appearing with the onset of that phase at the critical doping $p^*$. Since it is not due to charge carriers -- as it persists when the material becomes an insulator, at low doping -- or magnons -- as it exists in the absence of magnetic order -- or phonons -- since skew scattering is very weak, we attribute this $kappa_{rm xy}$ signal to exotic neutral excitations, presumably with spin chirality. The thermal Hall conductivity in the pseudogap phase of cuprates is reminiscent of that found in insulators with spin-liquid states. In the Mott insulator LCO, it attains the highest known magnitude of any insulator.