No Arabic abstract
We re-examined the angular dependence of the radiation from the intrinsic Josephson junctions in rectangular mesas of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$, in order to determine if the cavity mode part of the radiation arises from waves across the width $w$ or along the length $ell$ of the mesas, associated with ``hot spots [Wang {it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 105}, 057002 (2010)]. We derived analytic forms for the angular dependence expected in both cases for a general cavity mode in which the width of the mesa corresponds to an integer multiple of one-half the wavelength of the radiation. Assuming the coherent radiation from the $ac$ Josephson current source and the cavity magnetic surface current density source combine incoherently, fits to the data of Kadowaki {it et al.} [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. {bf 79}, 023703 (2010)] on a mesa with mean $ell/w=5.17$ for both wave directions using two models for the incoherent combination were made, which correspond to standing and traveling waves, respectively. The results suggest that the combined output from the uniform $ac$ Josephson current source plus a cavity wave forming along the rectangle length is equally probable as that of the combined output from the uniform $ac$ Josephson current plus a cavity wave across the width. However, for mesas in which $nell/2w$ is integral, where $n$ is the index of the rectangular TM$^z_{n,0}$ mode, it is shown that standing cavity mode waves along the length of the mesa do not radiate in the $xz$ plane perpendicular to the length of the mesa, suggesting experiments on such mesas could help to resolve the question.
Establishing the presence and the nature of a quantum critical point in their phase diagram is a central enigma of the high-temperature superconducting cuprates. It could explain their pseudogap and strange metal phases, and ultimately their high superconducting temperatures. Yet, while solid evidences exist in several unconventional superconductors of ubiquitous critical fluctuations associated to a quantum critical point, in the cuprates they remain undetected until now. Here using symmetry-resolved electronic Raman scattering in the cuprate Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$, we report the observation of enhanced electronic nematic fluctuations near the endpoint of the pseudogap phase. While our data hint at the possible presence of an incipient nematic quantum critical point, the doping dependence of the nematic fluctuations deviates significantly from a canonical quantum critical scenario. The observed nematic instability rather appears to be tied to the presence of a van Hove singularity in the band structure.
We report tunneling spectra of near optimally doped Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$ intrinsic Josephson junctions with area of 0.09 $mu$m$^2$, which avoid some fundamental difficulties in the previous tunneling experiments and allow a stable temperature-dependent measurement. A d-wave Eliashberg analysis shows that the spectrum at 4.2 K can be well fitted by considering electron couplings to a bosonic magnetic resonance mode and a broad high-energy continuum. Above $T_c$, the spectra show a clear pseudogap that persists up to 230 K, and a crossover can be seen indicating two different pseudogap phases existing above $T_c$. The intrinsic electron tunneling nature is discussed in the analysis.
Fluctuating superconductivity - vestigial Cooper pairing in the resistive state of a material - is usually associated with low dimensionality, strong disorder or low carrier density. Here, we report single particle spectroscopic, thermodynamic and magnetic evidence for persistent superconducting fluctuations in heavily hole-doped cuprate superconductor Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$ ($T_c$ = 66~K) despite the high carrier density. With a sign-problem free quantum Monte Carlo calculation, we show how a partially flat band at ($pi$,0) can help enhance superconducting phase fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the implications of an anisotropic band structure on the phase-coherence-limited superconductivity in overdoped cuprates and other superconductors.
A magnetic field applied to type-II superconductors introduces quantized vortices that locally quench superconductivity, providing a unique opportunity to investigate electronic orders that may compete with superconductivity. This is especially true in cuprate superconductors in which mutual relationships among superconductivity, pseudogap, and broken-spatial-symmetry states have attracted much attention. Here we observe energy and momentum dependent bipartite electronic superstructures in the vortex core of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$ using spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscopy (SI-STM). In the low-energy range where the nodal Bogoliubov quasiparticles are well-defined, we show that the quasiparticle scattering off vortices generates the electronic superstructure known as vortex checkerboard. In the high-energy region where the pseudogap develops, vortices amplify the broken-spatial-symmetry patterns that preexist in zero field. These data reveal canonical d-wave superconductivity near the node, yet competition between superconductivity and broken-spatial-symmetry states near the antinode.
Mixing of topological states with superconductivity could result in topological superconductivity with the elusive Majorana fermions potentially applicable in fault-tolerant quantum computing. One possible candidate considered for realization of topological superconductivity is thin bismuth films on Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$ (Bi2212). Here, we present angle-resolved and core-level photoemission spectroscopy studies of thin Bi films grown {it in-situ} on as-grown Bi2212 that show the absence of proximity effect. We find that the electron transfer from the film to the substrate and the resulting severe underdoping of Bi2212 at the interface is a likely origin for the absence of proximity effect. We also propose a possible way of preventing a total loss of proximity effect in this system. Our results offer a better and more universal understanding of the film/cuprate interface and resolve many issues related to the proximity effect.