No Arabic abstract
Striped phases in which spin and charge separate into different regions in the material have been proposed to account for the unusual properties of the high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors. The driving force for a striped phase is the charge distribution, which self-organizes itself into linear regions. In the highest $T_c$ materials such regions are not static but fluctuate in time. Neutrons, having no charge, can not directly observe these fluctuations but they can be observed indirectly by their effect on the phonons. Neutron scattering measurements have been made using a specialized technique to study the phonon line shapes in four crystals with oxygen doping levels varying from highly underdoped to optimal doping. It is shown that fluctuating charge stripes exist over the whole doping range, and become visible below temperatures somewhat higher than the pseudogap temperature.
Charge density wave (CDW) order has been shown to compete and coexist with superconductivity in underdoped cuprates. Theoretical proposals for the CDW order include an unconventional $d$-symmetry form factor CDW, evidence for which has emerged from measurements, including resonant soft x-ray scattering (RSXS) in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$ (YBCO). Here, we revisit RSXS measurements of the CDW symmetry in YBCO, using a variation in the measurement geometry to provide enhanced sensitivity to orbital symmetry. We show that the $(0 0.31 L)$ CDW peak measured at the Cu $L$ edge is dominated by an $s$ form factor rather than a $d$ form factor as was reported previously. In addition, by measuring both $(0.31 0 L)$ and $(0 0.31 L)$ peaks, we identify a pronounced difference in the orbital symmetry of the CDW order along the $a$ and $b$ axes, with the CDW along the $a$ axis exhibiting orbital order in addition to charge order.
We report a detailed Raman scattering study of the lattice dynamics in detwinned single crystals of the underdoped high temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O6+x (x=0.75, 0.6, 0.55 and 0.45). Whereas at room temperature the phonon spectra of these compounds are similar to that of optimally doped YBa2Cu3O6.99, additional Raman-active modes appear upon cooling below ~170-200 K in underdoped crystals. The temperature dependence of these new features indicates that they are associated with the incommensurate charge density wave state recently discovered using synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques on the same single crystals. Raman scattering has thus the potential to explore the evolution of this state under extreme conditions.
We show that the distribution of quantum oscillation frequencies observed over a broad range of magnetic field can be reconciled with the wavevectors of charge modulations found in nuclear magnetic resonance and resonant x-ray spectroscopy experiments in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x within a model of biaxial charge ordering occurring in a bilayer CuO2 planar system. Bilayer coupling introduces the possibility of different period modulations and quantum oscillation frequencies corresponding to each of the bonding and antibonding bands, which can be reconciled with recent experimental observations
We report Raman scattering measurement of charge nematic fluctuations in the tetragonal phase of BaFe$_2$As$_2$ and Sr(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ (x=0.04) single crystals. In both systems, the observed nematic fluctuations are found to exhibit divergent Curie-Weiss like behavior with very similar characteristic temperature scales, indicating a universal tendency towards charge nematic order in 122 iron-based superconductors.
The helical electron states on the surface of topological insulators or elemental Bismuth become unstable toward superconducting pairing formation when coupled to the charge or magnetic fluctuations. The latter gives rise to pairing instability in chiral channels $d_{xy}pm i d_{x^2-y^2}$, as has been observed recently in epitaxial Bi/Ni bilayer system at relatively high temperature, while the former favors a pairing with zero total angular momentum. Motivated by this observation we study the vortex bound states in these superconducting states. We consider a minimal model describing the superconductivity in the presence of a vortex in the superconducting order parameter. We show that zero-energy states appear in the spectrum of the vortex core for all pairing symmetries. Our findings may facilitate the observation of Majorana modes bounded to the vortices in heterostructures with no need for a proximity-induced superconductivity and relatively large value of $Delta/E_F$.