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Register a new userDiagonal Nematicity in the Pseudogap Phase of HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$
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The pseudogap phenomenon in cuprates is the most mysterious puzzle in the research of high-temperature superconductivity. In particular, whether the pseudogap is associated with a crossover or phase transition has been a long-standing controversial issue. The tetragonal cuprate HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$, with only one CuO$_2$ layer per primitive cell, is an ideal system to tackle this puzzle. Here, we measure the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility within the CuO$_2$ plane with exceptionally high-precision magnetic torque experiments. Our key finding is that a distinct two-fold in-plane anisotropy sets in below the pseudogap temperature $T^*$, which provides thermodynamic evidence for a nematic phase transition with broken four-fold symmetry. Most surprisingly, the nematic director orients along the diagonal direction of the CuO$_2$ square lattice, in sharp contrast to the bond nematicity reported in various iron-based superconductors and double-layer YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+delta}$, where the anisotropy axis is along the Fe-Fe and Cu-O-Cu directions, respectively. Another remarkable feature is that the enhancement of the diagonal nematicity with decreasing temperature is suppressed around the temperature at which short-range charge-density-wave (CDW) formation occurs. This is in stark contrast to YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+delta}$, where the bond nematicity is not influenced by the CDW. Our result suggests a competing relationship between diagonal nematic and CDW order in HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$.
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The specific heat $C$ of the single-layer cuprate superconductor HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4 + delta}$ was measured in an underdoped crystal with $T_{rm c} = 72$ K at temperatures down to $2$ K in magnetic fields up to $35$ T, a field large enough to suppress superconductivity at that doping ($p simeq 0.09$). In the normal state at $H = 35$ T, a residual linear term of magnitude $gamma = 12 pm 2$ mJ/K$^2$mol is observed in $C/T$ as $T to 0$, a direct measure of the electronic density of states. This high value of $gamma$ has two major implications. First, it is significantly larger than the value measured in overdoped cuprates outside the pseudogap phase ($p >p^star$), such as La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ and Tl$_2$Ba$_2$CuO$_{6 + delta}$ at $p simeq 0.3$, where $gamma simeq 7$ mJ/K$^2$mol. Given that the pseudogap causes a loss of density of states, and assuming that HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4 + delta}$ has the same $gamma$ value as other cuprates at $p simeq 0.3$, this implies that $gamma$ in HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4 + delta}$ must peak between $p simeq 0.09$ and $p simeq 0.3$, namely at (or near) the critical doping $p^star$ where the pseudogap phase is expected to end ($p^starsimeq 0.2$). Secondly, the high $gamma$ value implies that the Fermi surface must consist of more than the single electron-like pocket detected by quantum oscillations in HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4 + delta}$ at $p simeq 0.09$, whose effective mass $m^star= 2.7times m_0$ yields only $gamma = 4.0$ mJ/K$^2$mol. This missing mass imposes a revision of the current scenario for how pseudogap and charge order respectively transform and reconstruct the Fermi surface of cuprates.
Antiferromagnetic correlations have been argued to be the cause of the d-wave superconductivity and the pseudogap phenomena exhibited by the cuprates. Although the antiferromagnetic response in the pseudogap state has been reported for a number of compounds, there exists no information for structurally simple HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$. Here we report neutron scattering results for HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$ (superconducting transition temperature T$_c$ $sim$ 71 K, pseudogap temperature T* $sim$ 305 K) that demonstrate the absence of the two most prominent features of the magnetic excitation spectrum of the cuprates: the X-shaped hourglass response and the resonance mode in the superconducting state. Instead, the response is Y-shaped, gapped, and significantly enhanced below T*, and hence a prominent signature of the pseudogap state.
Phonons in nearly optimally doped HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$ were studied by inelastic X-ray scattering. The dispersion of the low energy modes is well described by a shell model, while the Cu-O bond stretching mode at high energy shows strong softening towards the zone boundary, which deviates strongly from the model. This seems to be common in the hole-doped high-$T_mathrm{c}$ superconducting cuprates, and, based on this work, not related to a lattice distortion specific to each material.
High magnetic fields have revealed a surprisingly small Fermi-surface in underdoped cuprates, possibly resulting from Fermi-surface reconstruction due to an order parameter that breaks translational symmetry of the crystal lattice. A crucial issue concerns the doping extent of this state and its relationship to the principal pseudogap and superconducting phases. We employ pulsed magnetic field measurements on the cuprate HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$ to identify signatures of Fermi surface reconstruction from a sign change of the Hall effect and a peak in the temperature-dependent planar resistivity. We trace the termination of Fermi-surface reconstruction to two hole concentrations where the superconducting upper critical fields are found to be enhanced. One of these points is associated with the pseudogap end-point near optimal doping. These results connect the Fermi-surface reconstruction to both superconductivity and the pseudogap phenomena.
The magnitude of the powder spin susceptibility of an optimally doped superconductor HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$ (Hg1201) in the normal state is found to be nearly the same as that of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ near the optimally doped level. The Stoner enhancement factor of Hg1201 is larger than that of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$. The magnitude correlation of the Stoner enhancement factor is inconsistent with the effect of the recent theoretical Coulomb repulsion between 3$d$ electrons and that of the superexchange intereraction of a charge transfer type.
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