No Arabic abstract
We report characterization results by energy dispersive x-ray analysis and AC-susceptibility for a statistically relevant number of single layer Bi-cuprate single crystals. We show that the two structurally quite different modifications of the single-layered Bi-cuprate, namely (La,Pb=0.4)-Bi2201 and La-Bi2201, exhibit anomalies in the superconducting transition temperature at certain hole doping, e.g. at 1/8 holes per Cu. These doping values agree well with the magic doping fractions found in the temperature dependent resistance of LSCO by Komiya et al. This new set of findings suggests that all these anomalies are generic for the hole-doped high-temperature superconductors.
The specific heat of the superconducting cuprates is calculated over the entire phase diagram. A d-wave BCS approach based on the large Fermi surface of Fermi liquid and band structure theory provides a good description of the overdoped region. At underdoping it is essential to include the emergence of a second energy scale, the pseudogap and its associated Gutzwiller factor, which accounts for a reduction in the coherent piece of the electronic Greens function due to increased correlations as the Mott insulating state is approached. In agreement with experiment, we find that the slope of the linear in T dependence of the low temperature specific heat rapidly increases above optimum doping while it is nearly constant below optimum. Our theoretical calculations also agree with recent data on Bi$_2$Sr$_{2-rm x}$La$_{rm x}$CuO$_{6+delta}$ for which the normal state is accessed through the application of a large magnetic field. A quantum critical point is located at a doping slightly below optimum.
The nature of the superconducting (SC) precursor in the cuprates has been the subject of intense interest, with profound implications for both the normal and the SC states. Different experimental probes have led to vastly disparate conclusions on the temperature range of superconducting fluctuations. The main challenges have been to separate the SC response from complex normal-state behavior, and to distinguish the underlying behavior of the quintessential CuO$_{2}$ layers from compound-specific properties. Here we reveal remarkably simple and universal behavior of the SC precursor using torque magnetometry, a unique thermodynamic probe with extremely high sensitivity to SC diamagnetism. We comprehensively study four distinct cuprate compounds: single-CuO$_{2}$-layer La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ (LSCO), Bi$_{2}$(Sr,La)$_{2}$CuO$_{6+delta}$ (Bi2201) and HgBa$_{2}$CuO$_{4+delta}$ (Hg1201), and double-layer Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$Ca$_{0.95}$Y$_{0.05}$CuO$_{8+delta}$ (Bi2212). Our approach, which focuses on the nonlinear diamagnetic response, completely removes normal-state contributions and thus allows us to trace the diamagnetic signal above Tc with great precision. We find that SC diamagnetism vanishes in an unusual, yet surprisingly simple exponential manner, marked by a universal temperature scale that is independent of compound and Tc. We discuss the distinct possibility that this unusual behavior signifies the proliferation of SC clusters as a result of the intrinsic inhomogeneity known to be an inherent property of the cuprates.
The anomalous high-energy dispersion of the conductance band in the high-Tc superconductor Pb-Bi2212 has been extensively mapped by angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) as a function of excitation energy in the range from 34 to 116 eV. Two distinctive types of dispersion behavior are observed around 0.6 eV binding energy, which alternate as a function of photon energy. The continuous transitions observed between the two kinds of behavior near 50, 70, and 90 eV photon energies allow to exclude the possibility that they originate from the interplay between the bonding and antibonding bands. The effects of three-dimensionality can also be excluded as a possible origin of the excitation energy dependence, as the large period of the alterations is inconsistent with the lattice constant in this material. We therefore confirm that the strong photon energy dependence of the high-energy dispersion in cuprates originates mainly from the photoemission matrix element that suppresses the photocurrent in the center of the Brillouin zone.
Overdoped high-temperature cuprate superconductors have been widely believed to be described by the physics of d-wave BCS-like superconductivity. However, recent measurements indicate that as the doping is increased, the superfluid density decreases smoothly to zero rather than increasing as expected by BCS theory in the absence of disorder. Here, we combine time-domain THz spectroscopy with kHz range mutual inductance measurements on the same overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ films to determine both the superfluid and the uncondensed carrier density as a function of doping. A significant fraction of the carriers remains uncondensed in a wide Drude-like peak even as $Trightarrow0$, which, when taken with the linear-in-temperature superfluid density, is inconsistent with existing theories for the role of disorder in suppressing the superfluid density in a d-wave superconductor. Our almost eight orders of magnitude in measurement frequency range gives us a unique look at the low frequency spectral weight distribution, which may suggest the presence of quantum phase fluctuations as the critical doping is approached.
Neutron scattering from high-quality YBCO6.334 single crystals with a T$_c$ of 8.4 K shows that there is no coexistence with long-range antiferromagnetic order at this very low, near-critical doping of $sim$0.055, in contrast to claims based on local probe techniques. We find that the neutron resonance seen in optimally doped YBCO7 and underdoped YBCO6.5, has undergone large softening and damping. It appears that the overdamped resonance, with a relaxation rate of 2 meV, is coupled to a zero-energy central mode that grows with cooling and eventually saturates with no change at or below T$_c$. Although a similar qualitative behaviour is found for YBCO6.35, our study shows that the central mode is stronger in YBCO6.334 than YBCO6.35. The system remains subcritical with short-ranged three dimensional correlations.