No Arabic abstract
We show that the pinning of collective charge and spin modes by impurities in the cuprate superconductors leads to qualitatively different fingerprints in the local density of states (LDOS). In particular, in a pinned (static) spin droplet, the creation of a resonant impurity state is suppressed, the spin-resolved LDOS exhibits a characteristic spatial pattern, and the LDOS undergoes significant changes with increasing magnetic field. Since all of these fingerprints are absent in a charge droplet, impurities are a new probe for identifying the nature and relative strength of collective modes.
The presence of optical polarization anisotropies, such as Faraday/Kerr effects, linear birefringence, and magnetoelectric birefringence are evidence for broken symmetry states of matter. The recent discovery of a Kerr effect using near-IR light in the pseudogap phase of the cuprates can be regarded as a strong evidence for a spontaneous symmetry breaking and the existence of an anomalous long-range ordered state. In this work we present a high precision study of the polarimetry properties of the cuprates in the THz regime. While no Faraday effect was found in this frequency range to the limits of our experimental uncertainty (1.3 milli-radian or 0.07$^circ$), a small but significant polarization rotation was detected that derives from an anomalous linear dichroism. In YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_y$ the effect has a temperature onset that mirrors the pseudogap temperature T$^*$ and is enhanced in magnitude in underdoped samples. In $x=1/8$ La$_{2-x}$Ba$_{x}$CuO$_4$, the effect onsets above room temperature, but shows a dramatic enhancement near a temperature scale known to be associated with spin and charge ordered states. These features are consistent with a loss of both C$_4$ rotation and mirror symmetry in the electronic structure of the CuO$_2$ planes in the pseudogap state.
During the last decade, translational and rotational symmetry-breaking phases -- density wave order and electronic nematicity -- have been established as generic and distinct features of many correlated electron systems, including pnictide and cuprate superconductors. However, in cuprates, the relationship between these electronic symmetry-breaking phases and the enigmatic pseudogap phase remains unclear. Here, we employ resonant x-ray scattering in a cuprate high-temperature superconductor La$_{1.6-x}$Nd$_{0.4}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ (Nd-LSCO) to navigate the cuprate phase diagram, probing the relationship between electronic nematicity of the Cu 3$d$ orbitals, charge order, and the pseudogap phase as a function of doping. We find evidence for a considerable decrease in electronic nematicity beyond the pseudogap phase, either by raising the temperature through the pseudogap onset temperature $T^{*}$ or increasing doping through the pseudogap critical point, $p^{*}$. These results establish a clear link between electronic nematicity, the pseudogap, and its associated quantum criticality in overdoped cuprates. Our findings anticipate that electronic nematicity may play a larger role in understanding the cuprate phase diagram than previously recognized, possibly having a crucial role in the phenomenology of the pseudogap phase.
A microscopic theory of superconductivity is formulated within an effective $p$-$d$ Hubbard model for a CuO2 plane. By applying the Mori-type projection technique, the Dyson equation is derived for the Green functions in terms of Hubbard operators. The antiferromagnetic exchange caused by interband hopping results in pairing of all carries in the conduction subband and high Tc proportional to the Fermi energy. Kinematic interaction in intraband hopping is responsible for the conventional spin-fluctuation pairing. Numerical solution of the gap equation proves the d-wave gap symmetry and defines Tc doping dependence. Oxygen isotope shift and pressure dependence of Tc are also discussed.
Planar normal state resistivity data taken from three families of cuprate superconductors are compared with theoretical calculations from the recent extremely correlated Fermi liquid theory (ECFL). The two hole doped cuprate materials $LSCO$ and $BSLCO$ and the electron doped material $LCCO$ have yielded rich data sets at several densities $delta$ and temperatures T, thereby enabling a systematic comparison with theory. The recent ECFL resistivity calculations for the highly correlated $t$-$t$-$J$ model by us give the resistivity for a wide set of model parameters. After using X-ray diffraction and angle resolved photoemission data to fix parameters appearing in the theoretical resistivity, only one parameter, the magnitude of the hopping $t$, remains undetermined. For each data set, the slope of the experimental resistivity at a single temperature-density point is sufficient to determine $t$, and hence the resistivity on absolute scale at all remaining densities and temperatures. This procedure is shown to give a fair account of the entire data.
Charge order in cuprate superconductors is a possible source of anomalous electronic properties in the underdoped regime. Intra-unit cell charge ordering tendencies point to electronic nematic order involving oxygen orbitals. In this context we investigate charge instabilities in the Emery model and calculate the charge susceptibility within diagrammatic perturbation theory. In this approach, the onset of charge order is signalled by a divergence of the susceptibility. Our calculations reveal three different kinds of order: a commensurate ($q=0$) nematic order, and two incommensurate nematic phases with modulation wavevectors that are either axial or oriented along the Brillouin zone diagonal. We examine the nematic phase diagram as a function of the filling, the interaction parameters, and the band structure. We also present results for the excitation spectrum near the nematic instability, and show that a soft nematic mode emerges from the particle-hole continuum at the transition. The Fermi surface reconstructions that accompany the modulated nematic phases are discussed with respect to their relevance for magneto-oscillation and photoemission measurements. The modulated nematic phases that emerge from the three-band Emery model are compared to those found previously in one-band models.