No Arabic abstract
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) shifts, if stripped off their uncertainties, must hold key information about the electronic fluid in the cuprates. The early shift interpretation that favored a single-fluid scenario will be reviewed, as well as recent experiments that reported its failure. Thereafter, based on literature shift data for planar Cu a contrasting shift phenomenology for cuprate superconductors is developed, which is very different from the early view while being in agreement with all published data. For example, it will be shown that the hitherto used hyperfine scenario is inadequate as a large isotropic shift component is discovered. Furthermore, the changes of the temperature dependences of the shifts above and below the superconducting transitions temperature proceed according to a few rules that were not discussed before. It appears that there can be substantial spin shift at the lowest temperature if the magnetic field lies in the CuO$_2$ plane, which points to a localization of spin in the $3d(x^2-y^2)$ orbital. A simple model is presented based on the most fundamental findings. The analysis must have new consequences for theory of the cuprates.
Nuclear relaxation is an important thermodynamic probe of electronic excitations, in particular in conducting and superconducting systems. Here, an empirical phenomenology based on all available literature data for planar Cu in hole-doped cuprates is developed. It is found that most of the seemingly different relaxation rates among the systems are due to a temperature independent anisotropy that affects the mostly measured $1/T_{1parallel}$, the rate with an external magnetic field along the crystal $c$-axis, while $1/T_{1perp}$ is largely independent on doping and material above the critical temperature of superconductivity ($T_c$). This includes very strongly overdoped systems that show Fermi liquid behavior and obey the Korringa law. Below $T_c$ the relaxation rates are similar, as well, if plotted against the reduced temperature $T/T_c$. Thus, planar Cu nuclear relaxation is governed by a simple, dominant mechanism that couples the nuclei with varying anisotropy to a rather ubiquitous bath of electronic excitations that appear Fermi liquid-like irrespective of doping and family. In particular, there is no significant enhancement of the relaxation due to electronic spin fluctuations, different from earlier conclusions. Only the La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ family appears to be an outlier as additional relaxation is present, however, the anisotropy remains temperature independent. Also systems with very low doping levels, for which there is a lack of data, may behave differently.
Geometrical Berry phase is recognized as having profound implications for the properties of electronic systems. Over the last decade, Berry phase has been essential to our understanding of new materials, including graphene and topological insulators. The Berry phase can be accessed via its contribution to the phase mismatch in quantum oscillation experiments, where electrons accumulate a phase as they traverse closed cyclotron orbits in momentum space. The high-temperature cuprate superconductors are a class of materials where the Berry phase is thus far unknown despite the large body of existing quantum oscillations data. In this report we present a systematic Berry phase analysis of Shubnikov - de Haas measurements on the hole-doped cuprates YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{y}$, YBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$, HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4 + delta}$, and the electron-doped cuprate Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$. For the hole-doped materials, a trivial Berry phase of 0 mod $2pi$ is systematically observed whereas the electron-doped Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ exhibits a significant non-zero Berry phase. These observations set constraints on the nature of the high-field normal state of the cuprates and points towards contrasting behaviour between hole-doped and electron-doped materials. We discuss this difference in light of recent developments related to charge density-wave and broken time-reversal symmetry states.
The characteristic features of the renormalization of the electrons in the bilayer cuprate superconductors are investigated within the kinetic-energy driven superconductivity. It is shown that the quasiparticle excitation spectrum is split into its bonding and antibonding components due to the presence of the bilayer coupling, with each component that is independent. However, in the underdoped and optimally doped regimes, although the bonding and antibonding electron Fermi surface (EFS) contours deriving from the bonding and antibonding layers are truncated to form the bonding and antibonding Fermi arcs, almost all spectral weights in the bonding and antibonding Fermi arcs are reduced to the tips of the bonding and antibonding Fermi arcs, which in this case coincide with the bonding and antibonding hot spots. These hot spots connected by the scattering wave vectors ${bf q}_{i} $ construct an octet scattering model, and then the enhancement of the quasiparticle scattering processes with the scattering wave vectors ${bf q}_{i}$ is confirmed via the result of the autocorrelation of the ARPES spectral intensities. Moreover, the peak-dip-hump (PDH) structure developed in each component of the quasiparticle excitation spectrum along the corresponding EFS is directly related with the peak structure in the quasiparticle scattering rate except for at around the hot spots, where the PDH structure is caused mainly by the bilayer coupling. Although the kink in the quasiparticle dispersion is present all around EFS, when the momentum moves away from the node to the antinode, the kink energy smoothly decreases, while the dispersion kink becomes more pronounced, and in particular, near the cut close to the antinode, develops into a break separating of the fasting dispersing high-energy part of the quasiparticle excitation spectrum from the slower dispersing low-energy part.
The origin of the exceptionally strong superconductivity of cuprates remains a subject of debate after more than two decades of investigation. Here we follow a new lead: The onset temperature for superconductivity scales with the strength of the anomalous normal-state scattering that makes the resistivity linear in temperature. The same correlation between linear resistivity and Tc is found in organic superconductors, for which pairing is known to come from fluctuations of a nearby antiferromagnetic phase, and in pnictide superconductors, for which an antiferromagnetic scenario is also likely. In the cuprates, the question is whether the pseudogap phase plays the corresponding role, with its fluctuations responsible for pairing and scattering. We review recent studies that shed light on this phase - its boundary, its quantum critical point, and its broken symmetries. The emerging picture is that of a phase with spin-density-wave order and fluctuations, in broad analogy with organic, pnictide, and heavy-fermion superconductors.
The study of the electromagnetic response in cuprate superconductors plays a crucial role in the understanding of the essential physics of these materials. Here the doping dependence of the electromagnetic response in cuprate superconductors is studied within the kinetic-energy driven superconducting mechanism. The kernel of the response function is evaluated based on the linear response approximation for a purely transverse vector potential, and can be broken up into its diamagnetic and paramagnetic parts. In particular, this paramagnetic part exactly cancels the corresponding diamagnetic part in the normal-state, and then the Meissner effect is obtained within the entire superconducting phase. Following this kernel of the response function, the electromagnetic response calculation in terms of the specular reflection model qualitatively reproduces many of the striking features observed in the experiments. In particular, the local magnetic-field profile follows an exponential law, while the superfluid density exhibits the nonlinear temperature behavior at the lowest temperatures, followed by the linear temperature dependence extending over the most of the superconducting temperature range. Moreover, the maximal value of the superfluid density occurs at around the critical doping $delta_{rm critical}sim 0.16$, and then decreases in both lower doped and higher doped regimes. The theory also shows that the nonlinear temperature dependence of the superfluid density at the lowest temperatures can be attributed to the nonlocal effects induced by the d-wave gap nodes on the electron Fermi surface.