No Arabic abstract
We present here a microscopic two-band model based on the structure of energetic levels of holes in $mathrm{CuO}_{2}$ conducting layers of cuprates. We prove that two energetically near-lying interacting bands can explain the electron-hole asymmetry. Indeed, we rigorously analyze the phase diagram of the model and show that the critical temperatures for fermion densities below half-filling can manifest a very different behavior as compared to the case of densities above half-filling. This fact results from the inter-band interaction and intra-band Coulomb repulsion in interplay with thermal fluctuations between two energetic levels. So, if the energy difference between bands is too big then the asymmetry disappears. Moreover, the critical temperature turns out to be a non-monotonic function of the fermion density and the phase diagram of our model shows superconducting domes as in high-$T_{c}$ cuprate superconductors. This explains why the maximal critical temperature is attained at donor densities away from the maximal one. Outside the superconducting phase and for fermion densities near half-filling the thermodynamics governed by our Hamiltonian corresponds, as in real high-$T_c$ materials, to a Mott-insulating phase. The nature of the inter-band interaction can be electrostatic (screened Coulomb interaction), magnetic (for instance some Heisenberg-type one-site spin-spin interaction), or a mixture of both. If the inter-band interaction is predominately magnetic then - additionally to the electron-hole asymmetry - we observe a reentering behavior meaning that the superconducting phase can only occur in a finite interval of temperatures. This phenomenon is rather rare, but has also been observed in the so-called magnetic superconductors.
Evidence from NMR of a two-component spin system in cuprate high-$T_c$ superconductors is shown to be paralleled by similar evidence from the electronic entropy so that a two-component quasiparticle fluid is implicated. We propose that this two-component scenario is restricted to the optimal and underdoped regimes and arises from the upper and lower branches of the reconstructed energy-momentum dispersion proposed by Yang, Rice and Zhang (YRZ) to describe the pseudogap. We calculate the spin susceptibility within the YRZ formalism and show that the doping and temperature dependence reproduces the experimental data for the cuprates.
High-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) mysteriously emerges upon doping holes or electrons into insulating copper oxides with antiferromagnetic (AFM) order. It has been thought that the large energy scale of magnetic excitations, compared to phonon energies for example, lies at the heart of an electronically-driven superconducting phase at high temperatures. However, despite extensive studies, little information is available for comparison of high-energy magnetic excitations of hole- and electron-doped superconductors to assess a possible correlation with the respective superconducting transition temperatures. Here, we use resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Cu L3-edge to reveal high-energy collective excitations in the archetype electron-doped cuprate Nd2-xCexCuO4 (NCCO). Surprisingly, despite the fact that the spin stiffness is zero and the AFM correlations are short-ranged, magnetic excitations harden significantly across the AFM-HTSC phase boundary, in stark contrast with the hole-doped cuprates. Furthermore, we find an unexpected and highly dispersive mode in superconducting NCCO that is undetected in the hole-doped compounds, which emanates from the zone center with a characteristic energy comparable to the pseudogap, and may signal a quantum phase distinct from superconductivity. The uncovered asymmetry in the high-energy collective excitations with respect to hole and electron doping provides additional constraints for modeling the HTSC cuprates.
The recent findings about two distinct quasiparticle inelastic scattering rates in angle-dependent magnetoresistance (ADMR) experiments in overdoped high-$T_c$ cuprates superconductors have motivated many discussions related to the link between superconductivity, pseudogap, and transport properties in these materials. After computing dynamical self-energy corrections in the framework of the $t-J$ model the inelastic scattering rate was introduced as usual. Two distinct scattering rates were obtained showing the main features observed in ADMR experiments. Predictions for underdoped cuprates are discussed. The implicances of these two scattering rates on the resistivity were also studied as a function of doping and temperature and confronted with experimental measurements.
We theoretically investigate the vortex state of the cuprate high-temperature superconductors in the presence of magnetic fields. Assuming the recently derived nonlinear $sigma$-model for fluctuations in the pseudogap phase, we find that the vortex cores consist of two crossed regions of elliptic shape, in which a static charge order emerges. Charge density wave order manifests itself as satellites to the ordinary Bragg peaks directed along the axes of the reciprocal copper lattice. Quadrupole density wave (bond order) satellites, if seen, are predicted to be along the diagonals. The intensity of the satellites should grow linearly with the magnetic field, in agreement with the result of recent experiments.
We extend the quasiclassical formalism for diffusive superconductors by deriving anisotropic (gradient) corrections to the Usadel equation. We demonstrate that in a number of physical situations such corrections may play a crucial role being responsible for the effects which cannot be recovered within the standard Usadel approximation. One of them is the so-called photoelectric effect in superconductors and superconducting-normal (SN) hybrid structures. Provided a superconducting part of the system is irradiated by an external ac electromagnetic field the charge imbalance develops and a non-vanishing dc voltage is induced across the SN interface. In the presence of magnetic impurities in a superconductor the magnitude of this effect becomes large and can easily be detected in modern experiments.