No Arabic abstract
A number of spectacular experimental anomaliescite{li-2007,fujita-2005} have recently been discovered in certain cuprates, notably {LBCO} and {LNSCO}, which exhibit unidirectional spin and charge order (known as ``stripe order). We have recently proposed to interpret these observations as evidence for a novel ``striped superconducting state, in which the superconducting order parameter is modulated in space, such that its average is precisely zero. Here, we show that thermal melting of the striped superconducting state can lead to a number of unusual phases, of which the most novel is a charge $4e$ superconducting state, with a corresponding fractional flux quantum $hc/4e$. These are never-before observed states of matter, and ones, moreover, that cannot arise from the conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) mechanism. Thus, direct confirmation of their existence, even in a small subset of the cuprates, could have much broader implications for our understanding of high temperature superconductivity. We propose experiments to observe fractional flux quantization, which thereby could confirm the existence of these states.
We show that, at weak to intermediate coupling, antiferromagnetic fluctuations enhance d-wave pairing correlations until, as one moves closer to half-filling, the antiferromagnetically-induced pseudogap begins to suppress the tendency to superconductivity. The accuracy of our approach is gauged by detailed comparisons with Quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The negative pressure dependence of Tc and the existence of photoemission hot spots in electron-doped cuprate superconductors find their natural explanation within this approach.
Using a mix of numerical and analytic methods, we show that recent NMR $^{17}$O measurements provide detailed information about the structure of the charge-density wave (CDW) phase in underdoped YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$. We perform Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) calculations of both the local density of states and the orbitally resolved charge density, which are closely related to the magnetic and electric quadrupole contributions to the NMR spectrum, using a microscopic model that was shown previously to agree closely with x-ray experiments. The BdG results reproduce qualitative features of the experimental spectrum extremely well. These results are interpreted in terms of a generic hotspot model that allows one to trace the origins of the NMR lineshapes. We find that four quantities---the orbital character of the Fermi surface at the hotspots, the Fermi surface curvature at the hotspots, the CDW correlation length, and the magnitude of the subdominant CDW component---are key in determining the lineshapes.
Charge density wave (CDW) correlations have recently been shown to universally exist in cuprate superconductors. However, their nature at high fields inferred from nuclear magnetic resonance is distinct from that measured by x-ray scattering at zero and low fields. Here we combine a pulsed magnet with an x-ray free electron laser to characterize the CDW in YBa2Cu3O6.67 via x-ray scattering in fields up to 28 Tesla. While the zero-field CDW order, which develops below T ~ 150 K, is essentially two-dimensional, at lower temperature and beyond 15 Tesla, another three-dimensionally ordered CDW emerges. The field-induced CDW onsets around the zero-field superconducting transition temperature, yet the incommensurate in-plane ordering vector is field-independent. This implies that the two forms of CDW and high-temperature superconductivity are intimately linked.
The competing orders in the particle-particle (P-P) channel and the particle-hole (P-H) channel have been proposed separately to explain the pseudogap physics in cuprates. By solving the Bogoliubov-deGennes equation self-consistently, we show that there is a general complementary connection between the d-wave checkerboard order (DWCB) in the particle-hole (P-H) channel and the pair density wave order (PDW) in the particle-particle (P-P) channel. A small pair density localization generates DWCB and PDW orders simultaneously. The result suggests that suppressing superconductivity locally or globally through phase fluctuation should induce both orders in underdoped cuprates. The presence of both DWCB and PDW orders with $4a times 4a$ periodicity can explain the checkerboard modulation observed in FT-STS from STM and the puzzling dichotomy between the nodal and antinodal regions as well as the characteristic features such as non-dispersive Fermi arc in the pseudogap state.
This short review aims to summarize on What the Charge Density Waves can tell to other inhomogeneous states in strongly correlated systems, particularly to spin-polarized superconductors. We shall update on expanding observations of solitons in quasi 1D CDW conductors and link them to the growing information and demands related to inhomogeneous spin-polarized states in superconductors. The related theory, existent or awaited for, stretches from solitons in 1D models to vortex-like elementary excitations in 2D,3D ordered incommensurate CDWs and superconductors.