Effects of out-of-plane disorder on the nodal quasiparticle and superconducting gap in single-layer Bi$_2$Sr$_{1.6}Ln_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+δ}$ ($Ln$ = La, Nd, Gd)
M. Hashimoto, T. Yoshida, A. Fujimori, D. H. Lu, Z. -X. Shen, M. Kubota, K. Ono, M. Ishikado, K. Fujita, S. Uchida
How out-of-plane disorder affects the electronic structure has been investigated for the single-layer cuprates Bi$_2$Sr$_{1.6}$$Ln$$_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+δ}$ ($Ln$ = La, Nd, Gd) by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We have observed that, with increasing disorder, while the Fermi surface shape and band dispersions are not affected, the quasi-particle width increases, the anti-nodal gap is enhanced and the superconducting gap in the nodal region is depressed. The results indicate that the superconductivity is significantly depressed by out-of-plane disorder through the enhancement of the anti-nodal gap and the depression of the superconducting gap in the nodal region.
We present a detailed analysis on the hopping between monolayer CuO$_2$ and bulk CuO$_2$ plane in the Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ substrate. With a two-band model, we demonstrate that the nodeless gap can only exist when the hole concentration in monolayer CuO$_2$ plane is very large or very small. We argued that the possible phase separation may play important role in the recent experimental observation of nodeless gap.
Recent angle resolved photoemission spectrascope (ARPES) experiments on strongly underdoped Bi$_2$Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+δ}$ cuprates have reported an unusual gap in the nodal direction. Transport experiments on these cuprates found variable range hopping behavior observed. These cuprates have both electron and hole doping which has led to proposals that this cuprate is analogous to a partially compensated semiconductors. The nodal gap then corresponds to the Efros-Schklovskii(ES) gap in such semiconductors. We calculate the doping dependence and temperature dependence of a ES gap model and f…
High-resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements have been carried out on the electron-doped (Nd$_{1.85}$Ce$_{0.15}$)CuO$_4$ high temperature superconductor. We have revealed a clear kink at $\sim$60 meV in the dispersion along the (0,0)-($π$,$π$) nodal direction, accompanied by a peak-dip-hump feature in the photoemission spectra. This indicates that the nodal electrons are coupled to collective excitations (bosons) in electron-doped superconductors, with the phonons as the most likely candidate of the boson. This finding has established a universality of nodal electron c…
High resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements on underdoped (La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$)CuO$_4$ system show that, at energies below 70 meV, the quasiparticle peak is well defined around the ($π$/2,$π$/2) nodal region and disappears rather abruptly when the momentum is changed from the nodal point to the ($π$,0) antinodal point along the underlying ``Fermi surface''. It indicates that there is an extra low energy scattering mechanism acting upon the antinodal quasiparticles. We propose that this mechanism is the scattering of quasiparticles across the nearly parallel segments of the Fermi sur…
Lightly-doped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ in the so-called "insulating" spin-glass/diagonal-stripe phase has been studied by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A quasi-particle (QP) peak crossing the Fermi level has been observed in the node direction of the d-wave superconducting gap, forming an "arc" of Fermi surface consistent with the recently observed metallic transport behavior at high temperatures of lightly-doped materials. The spectral weight of the nodal QP smoothly increases with hole doping, corresponding to the $n \sim x$ behavior of the carrier number in the underdoped and li…
Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with ultimate momentum resolution we have explicitly resolved the bilayer splitting in the nodal direction of Bi-2212. The splitting is observed in a wide doping range and, within the experimental uncertainty, its size does not depend on doping. The value of splitting derived from the experiment is in good agreement with that from band structure calculations which implies the absence of any electronic confinement to single planes within bilayers of Bi-2212. Other consequences of this finding are also discussed.
We report a doping dependent study of the quasiparticles dynamics in HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$ via Electronic Raman Scattering. A well-defined energy scale is found in the normal state dynamics of the quasiparticles over a broad doping range. It is interpreted as evidence for coupling between the quasiparticles and a collective bosonic mode whose energy scale depend only weakly with doping. We contrast this behavior with that of the superconducting gap whose amplitude near the node continuously decreases towards the underdoped regime. We discuss the implications of our findings on the nature of the …
Magnetic-field-induced ordering of electrons around vortices is a striking phenomenon recently found in high-$T_c$ cuprates. To identify its consequence in the quasiparticle dynamics, the magnetic-field ($H$) dependence of the low-temperature thermal conductivity $κ$ of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ crystals is studied for a wide doping range. It is found that the behavior of $κ(H)$ in the sub-Kelvin region changes drastically across optimum doping, and the data for underdoped samples are indicative of unusual magnetic-field-induced localization of quasiparticles; this localization phenomenon is pro…
We report on laser-excited angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) in the electron-doped cuprate Sm(1.85)Ce(0.15)CuO(4-d). The data show the existence of a nodal hole-pocket Fermi-surface both in the normal and superconducting states. We prove that its origin is long-range antiferromagnetism by an analysis of the coherence factors in the main and folded bands. This coexistence of long-range antiferromagnetism and superconductivity implies that electron-doped cuprates are two-Fermi-surface superconductors. The measured superconducting gap in the nodal hole-pocket is compatible with a …
We report a doping dependant Electronic Raman Scattering (ERS) study of HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$ (Hg-1201) single crystals. We investigate the dynamics of the antinodal and nodal quasiparticles. We show that the dynamical response of the antinodal quasiparticles is strongly reduced towards the underdoped regime in both the normal and superconducting states. When probing the nodal quasiparticles, we are able to distinguish between the energy scale of the pseudogap and that of the superconducting gap. A simple model relating the suppression of the dynamical response of the antinodal quasiparticles to…
A variational theory is proposed for the quasiparticle excitation in high T$_{c}$ cuprates. The theory goes beyond the usual Gutzwiller projected mean field state description by including the spin-charge recombination effect in the RVB background. The spin-charge recombination effect is found to qualitatively alter the behavior of the quasiparticle charge as a function of doping and cause considerable anisotropy in quasiparticle weight on the Fermi surface.
We investigate whether the spin or charge degrees of freedom are responsible for the nodal gap in underdoped cuprates by performing inelastic neutron scattering and x-ray diffraction measurements on La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$, which is on the edge of the antiferromagnetic phase. We found that fluctuating incommensurate spin-density-wave (SDW) with a the bottom part of an hourglass dispersion exists even in this magnetic sample. The strongest component of these fluctuations diminishes at the same temperature where the nodal gap opens. X-ray scattering measurements on the same crystal show no signa…
Nodal angle resolved photoemission spectra taken on overdoped La$_{1.77}$Sr$_{0.23}$CuO$_4$ are presented and analyzed. It is proven that the low-energy excitations are true Landau Fermi-liquid quasiparticles. We show that momentum and energy distribution curves can be analyzed self-consistently without quantitative knowledge of the bare band dispersion. Finally, by imposing Kramers-Kronig consistency on the self-energy $Σ$, insight into the quasiparticle residue is gained. We conclude by comparing our results to quasiparticle properties extracted from thermodynamic, magneto-resistance, and hi…
High-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors are characterized by a strong momentum-dependent anisotropy between the low energy excitations along the Brillouin zone diagonal (nodal direction) and those along the Brillouin zone face (antinodal direction). Most obvious is the d-wave superconducting gap, with the largest magnitude found in the antinodal direction and no gap in the nodal direction. Additionally, while antinodal quasiparticle excitations appear only below $T_c$, superconductivity is thought to be indifferent to nodal excitations as they are regarded robust and insensitive to $T_c$. Here we r…
HgBa$_{2}$CuO$_{4+δ}$ (Hg1201) has been shown to be a model cuprate for scattering, optical, and transport experiments, but angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data are still lacking owing to the absence of a charge-neutral cleavage plane. We report on progress in achieving the experimental conditions for which quasiparticles can be observed in the near-nodal region of the Fermi surface. The d-wave superconducting gap is measured and found to have a maximum of 39 meV. At low temperature, a kink is detected in the nodal dispersion at approximately 51 meV below the Fermi level, an …
The London penetration depth, lambda{ab}(T), is reported for thin films of the electron-doped superconductor Pr{2-x}Ce{x}CuO{4-y} at three doping levels (x = 0.13, 0.15 and 0.17). Measurements down to 0.35 K were carried out using a tunnel diode oscillator with excitation fields applied both perpendicular and parallel to the conducting planes. For all samples and both field orientations lambda{ab}(T) showed power law behavior implying a superconducting gap with nodes.
We show that the nodal quasiparticles have significant effect on the classical phase fluctuations in a quasi-two-dimensional d-wave superconductor. They give rise to singularities in the temperature behavior of some of the coupling constants in the phase-only effective action. One of the consequences is that the classical XY-model is not adequate for the description of the superconducting fluctuations in d-wave superconductors at low temperatures.
The emergence of the coherent quasiparticle peak and the development of the peak-dip-hump structure in the anti-nodal region below $T_{c}$ is the most prominent non-BCS signature of the underdoped high-$T_{c}$ cuprates, in which no coherent quasiparticle can be defined in the anti-nodal region above $T_{c}$. The peak-dip-hump structure has been commonly interpreted as the result of the coupling of the electron to some Bosonic mode. However, such an electron-Boson coupling picture does not answer the question of \textit{why the quasiparticle dispersion is so flat in the anti-nodal region}, a be…
While the pronounced doping dependence of the quasiparticle spectral weight in the antinodal region of the superconducting cuprates, as seen by ARPES, unambiguously points to the magnetic origin of the strong electron-boson coupling there, the nature of the electron scattering in the nodal direction remained unclear. Here we present a short review of our recent detailed investigations of the nodal direction of Bi-2212. Our findings prove the existence of well defined quasiparticles even in the pseudogap state and show that the essential part of the quasiparticle scattering rate, which appears …
A detailed study of the normal state photoemission lineshapes and quasiparticle dispersion for the single layer Bi$_2$Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+δ}$ (Bi2201) superconductor is presented. We report the first experimental evidence of a double peak structure and a dip of spectral intensity in the energy distribution curves (EDCs) along the nodal direction. The double peak structure is well identified in the normal state, up to ten times the critical temperature. As a result of the same self-energy effect, a strong mass renormalization of the quasiparticle dispersion, i.e. kink, and an increase of th…
Anomalously high quasiparticle thermal conductivity in the underdoped cuprate superconductor HgBa$_{2}$CuO$_{4+δ}$
Université de Sherbrooke（舍布鲁克大学）；CEA Saclay（法国原子能和替代能源委员会萨克莱中心）；CNRS UPR3228, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Toulouse, INSA-T（法国国家科学研究中心、格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学、图卢兹大学）；IRL Frontières Quantiques, Université de Sherbrooke–CNRS（量子前沿研究所，舍布鲁克大学-法国国家科学研究中心）；Canadian Institute for Advanced Research（加拿大高级研究院）
A new generation of angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements on the cuprate superconductors offer the promise of enhanced momentum and energy resolution. In particular, the energy and temperature dependence of the on-shell nodal (k_x=k_y) quasiparticle scattering rate can be studied. In the superconducting state, low temperature transport measurements suggest that one can describe nodal quasiparticles within the framework of a BCS d-wave model by including forward elastic scattering and spin-fluctuation inelastic scattering. Here, using this model, we calculate the temp…
We present angle resolved photoemission (ARPES) data on Na-doped Ca$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$. We demonstrate that the chemical potential shifts upon doping the system across the insulator to metal transition. The resulting low energy spectra reveal a gap structure which appears to deviate from the canonical $d_{x2-y2} ~ |cos(k_x a)-cos(k_y a)|$ form. To reconcile the measured gap structure with d-wave superconductivity one can understand the data in terms of two gaps, a very small one contributing to the nodal region and a very large one dominating the anti-nodal region. The latter is a result of the …
We explore a BCS Bose Einstein crossover scenario for $0 \leq T \leq T_c$ and its implications for the superfluid density and specific heat. The low lying excitations consist of nodal (fermionic) quasi-particles as well as excited (bosonic) pair states. Semi-quantitative comparison with cuprate data is reasonable, with no compelling indications for Landau parameter effects.
We have measured the complex conductivity of a BSCCO(2212) thin film between 0.2 and 1.0 THz. We find the conductivity in the superconducting state to be well described as the sum of contributions from quasiparticles, the condensate, and order parameter fluctuations which draw 30% of the spectral weight from the condensate. An analysis based on this decomposition yields a quasiparticle scattering rate on the order of k_(B)*T/(hbar) for temperatures below Tc.
We present a theory for the onset of spin density wave order in the superconducting ground state of the cuprates. We compute the scaling dimensions of allowed perturbations of a `relativistic' fixed point with O(4)xO(3) symmetry, including those associated with the fermionic nodal Bogoliubov quasiparticles. Analyses of up to six loops show that all perturbations with square lattice symmetry are likely irrelevant. We demonstrate that the fermion spectral functions are primarily damped by the coupling to fluctuations of a composite field with Ising nematic order. We also discuss the influence of…
We analyze the effects of a momentum-dependent self-energy on the photoemission momentum distribution curve (MDC) lineshape, dispersion and linewidth. We illustrate this general analysis by a detailed examination of nodal quasiparticles in high Tc cuprates. We use variational results for the nodal quasiparticle weight Z (which varies rapidly with hole doping x) and the low energy Fermi velocity $v_F^{low}$ (which is independent of x), to show that the high energy MDC dispersion $v_{high} = v_F^{low}/Z$, so that it is much larger than the bare (band structure) velocity and also increases strong…
Field-angle dependent heat capacity of the non-magnetic borocarbide superconductor YNi2B2C reveals a clear fourfold oscillation, the first observation of its kind. The observed angular variations were analyzed as a function of magnetic field angle, field intensity and temperature to provide its origin. The quantitative agreement between experiment and theory strongly suggests that we are directly observing nodal quasiparticles generated along <100> by the Doppler effect. The results demonstrate that field-angle heat capacity can be a powerful tool in probing the momentum-space gap structure in…
Studying the nodal quasiparticles in superconducting cuprates by photoemission with highly improved momentum resolution, we show that a new "kink" feature in the scattering rate is a key to uncover the nature of electron correlations in these compounds. Our data provide evidence that the main doping independent contribution to the scattering can be well understood in terms of the conventional Fermi liquid model, while the additional doping dependent contribution has a magnetic origin. This sheds doubt on applicability of a phonon-mediated pairing mechanism to high temperature superconductors.
Motivated by theory and experiments on strain induced pseudo-Landau levels (LLs) of Dirac fermions in graphene and topological materials, we consider its extension for Bogoliubov quasiparticles (QPs) in a nodal superconductor (SC). We show, using an effective low energy description and numerical lattice calculations for a d-wave SC, that a spatial variation of the electronic hopping amplitude or a spatially varying s-wave pairing component can act as a pseudo-magnetic field for the Bogoliubov QPs, leading to the formation of pseudo-LLs. We propose realizations of this phenomenon in the cuprate…
We used point-contact tunnelling spectroscopy to study the superconducting pairing symmetry of electron-doped $Nd_{1.85}Ce_{0.15}CuO_{4-y}$ (NCCO) and hole-doped $La_{1.89}Sr_{0.11}CuO_{4}$ (LSCO). Nearly identical spectra without zero bias conductance peak (ZBCP) were obtained on the (110) and (100) oriented surfaces (the so-called nodal and anti-nodal directions) of NCCO. In contrast, LSCO showed a remarkable ZBCP in the nodal direction as expected from a d-wave superconductor. Detailed analysis reveals an s-wave component in the pairing symmetry of the NCCO sample with $Δ/k_BT_c=1.66$, a va…
Recent scanning tunneling experiments on $Ca_{2-x}Na_xCuO_2Cl_2$ by Hanaguri et al. observe field-dependent quasiparticle interference effects which are sensitive to the sign of the d-wave order parameter. Their analysis of spatial fluctuations in the local density of states shows that there is a selective enhancement of quasiparticle scattering events that preserve the gap sign, and a selective depression of the quasiparticle scattering events that reverse the gap sign. We introduce a model which accounts for this phenomenon as a consequence of vortex pinning to impurities. Each pinned vortex…
We compute the electrical and thermal conductivities and Hall conductivities of the $d$-density wave (DDW) state in the low-temperature impurity-scattering-dominated regime for low-dopings, at which they are dominated by nodal quasiparticles. We show that the longitudinal conductivity in this limit in the DDW state is not Drude-like. However, the thermal conductivty is Drude-like; this is a reflection of the discrepancy between electrical and thermal transport at finite frequency in the DDW state. An extreme example of this occurs in the $μ=0$, $τ\to\infty$ limit, where there is a strong viola…
A characteristic feature of the copper oxide high-temperature superconductors is the dichotomy between the electronic excitations along the nodal (diagonal) and antinodal (parallel to the Cu-O bonds) directions in momentum space, generally assumed to be linked to the "d-wave" symmetry of the superconducting state. Angle-resolved photoemission measurements in the superconducting state have revealed a quasiparticle spectrum with a d-wave gap structure that exhibits a maximum along the antinodal direction and vanishes along the nodal direction. Subsequent measurements have shown that, at low dopi…
Despite the intensive efforts for determining the mechanism that causes high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxide materials, no consensus on the pairing mechanism has been reached. Recent advances in high resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopies have suggested that a sizeable electron-phonon coupling exists as the principal cause for kinks in the dispersion relations (energy versus wave vector) of the electronic states. Here, we report on a systematic study about the influence of the electron-phonon coupling parameter "$λ$" in the electronic quasiparticle dispersions alo…
CeCoIn5 is a heavy fermion superconductor with strong similarities to the high-Tc cuprates, including quasi-two-dimensionality, proximity to antiferromagnetism, and probable d-wave pairing arising from a non-Fermi-liquid normal state. Experiments allowing detailed comparisons of their electronic properties are of particular interest, but in most cases are difficult to realize, due to their very different transition temperatures. Here we use low temperature microwave spectroscopy to study the charge dynamics of the CeCoIn5 superconducting state. The similarities to cuprates, in particular to ul…
We have revisited the magnetic penetration depth data on the electron-doped cuprates Pr(2-x)Ce(x)CuO(4-y) and La(2-x)Ce(x)CuO(4-y). It is proposed that the transition between the nodal-gap-like and nodeless-gap-like behaviors upon electron-doping [see, e.g., M. Kim et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 87001 (2003)] can be due to a scattering of the quasiparticles in the d-wave superconducting state by an incipient or weak antiferromagnetic spin-density-wave. This conjecture is supported by the inelastic neutron scattering and angle-resolved photoemission experiments on some closely related electron-do…
We point out that unidirectional bond-centered charge-density-wave states in cuprates involve electronic order in both s- and d-wave channels, with non-local Coulomb repulsion suppressing the s-wave component. The resulting bond-charge-density wave, coexisting with superconductivity, is compatible with recent photoemission and tunneling data and as well as neutron-scattering measurements, once long-range order is destroyed by slow fluctuations or glassy disorder. In particular, the real-space structure of d-wave stripes is consistent with the scanning-tunneling-microscopy measurements on both …
Superconductivity in the heavy-fermion compound CeCu2Si2 is a prototypical example of Cooper pairs formed by strongly correlated electrons. For more than 30 years, it has been believed to arise from nodal d-wave pairing mediated by a magnetic glue. Here, we report a detailed study of the specific heat and magnetization at low temperatures for a high-quality single crystal. Unexpectedly, the specific-heat measurements exhibit exponential decay with a two-gap feature in its temperature dependence, along with a linear dependence as a function of magnetic field and the absence of oscillations in t…
We performed an optical spectroscopy study on single crystals of Pr$_{0.85}$LaCe$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4-δ}$ (PLCCO) to revisit the electron-hole asymmetry, which has been understood as a fundamental property of cuprates. Four differently annealed samples - as-grown, reduced, optimally oxygenated, and over-oxygenated samples - were prepared, which have superconducting transition temperatures, $T_c$ = 0, 15, 24, and 18 K, respectively. We observed that low-energy quasiparticle spectral weights of all the PLCCO samples are significantly small in comparison with those of other electron-doped cuprate fami…
The electron dynamics in the normal state of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ is studied by inelastic light scattering over a wide range of doping. A strong anisotropy of the electron relaxation is found which cannot be explained by single-particle properties alone. The results strongly indicate the presence of an unconventional quantum-critical metal-insulator transition where "hot" (antinodal) quasiparticles become insulating while "cold" (nodal) quasiparticles remain metallic. A phenomenology is developed which allows a quantitative understanding of the Raman results and provides a scenario wh…
Nodal quasiparticles of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 have been studied by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with high momentum and energy resolution. Low-energy tunable photons have enabled us to resolve a small nodal bilayer splitting, unmasking the intrinsic single-particle scattering rate. The nodal scattering rate is abruptly suppressed upon the superconducting transition, and shows a linear energy dependence at low energies, indicating the nontrivial effect of elastic scatterings on the quasiparticles. With increasing energy, the antibonding-band scattering rate becomes higher than the bonding o…
We use scanning tunneling microscopy to investigate Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ trilayer cuprates from the optimally doped to overdoped regime. We find that the two distinct superconducting gaps from the inner and outer CuO2 planes both decrease rapidly with doping, in sharp contrast to the nearly constant Tc. Spectroscopic imaging reveals the absence of quasiparticle interference in the antinodal region of overdoped samples, showing an opposite trend to that in single- and double-layer compounds. We propose that the existence of two types of inequivalent CuO2 planes and the intricate interaction betwee…
In-plane transport properties of nonsuperconducting YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{y} (y = 6.35) are measured using high-quality untwinned single crystals. We find that both the a- and b-axis resistivities show log(1/T) divergence down to 80 mK, and accordingly the thermal conductivity data indicate that the nodal quasiparticles are progressively localized with lowering temperature. Hence, both the charge and heat transport data do not support the existence of a "thermal metal" in nonsuperconducting YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{y}, as opposed to a recent report by Sutherland {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 94}, 14700…
We apply the new-generation ARPES methodology to the most widely studied cuprate superconductor YBCO. Considering the nodal direction, we found noticeable renormalization effects known as "kinks" both in the quasiparticle dispersion and scattering rate, the bilayer splitting and evidence for strong interband scattering -- all the characteristic features of the nodal quasiparticles detected earlier in BSCCO. The typical energy scale and the doping dependence of the "kinks" clearly point to their intimate relation with the spin-1 resonance seen in the neutron scattering experiments. Our findings…
Fitting the momentum distribution photoemission spectra to the Voigt profile appears to be a robust procedure to purify the interaction effects from the experimental resolution. In application to Bi-2212 high-Tc cuprates, the procedure reveals the true scattering rate at low binding energies and temperatures, and, consequently, the true value of the elastic scattering. Reaching the minimal value ~ 16 meV, the elastic scattering does not reveal a systematic dependence on doping level, but is rather sensitive to impurity concentration, and can be explained by the forward scattering on out-of-pla…
We use time- and angle-resolved photoemission to measure the nodal non-equilibrium electronic states in various dopings of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$. We find that the initial pump-induced transient signal of these ungapped states is strongly affected by the onset of the superconducting gap at $T_c$, superconducting pairing fluctuations at $T_p$, and the pseudogap at $T^*$. Moreover, $T_p$ marks a suggestive threshold in the fluence-dependent transient signal, with the appearance of a critical fluence below $T_p$ that corresponds to the energy required to break apart all Cooper pairs. These…
The interplay of phase fluctuations and nodal quasiparticles: ubiquitous Fermi arcs in two-dimensional d-wave superconductors
State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Fudan University（复旦大学表面物理国家重点实验室）；Center for Field Theory and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, Fudan University（复旦大学物理系场论与粒子物理中心）；Key Laboratory of Artificial Structures and Quantum Control (Ministry of Education), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院人工结构及量子控制教育部重点实验室）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）
We report low-temperature heat transport measurements on superconducting iron sulfide FeS with $T_c \approx$ 5 K, which has the same crystal structure and similar electronic band structure to the superconducting iron selenide FeSe. In zero magnetic field, a significant residual linear term $κ_0/T$ is observed. At low field, $κ_0/T$ increases rapidly with the increase of field. These results provide strong evidence for nodal superconducting gap in FeS. We compare it with the sister compound FeSe, and other iron-based superconductors with nodal gap.
Using a mapping from the three-band extended Hubbard model for cuprate superconductors into a generalized t-J model, and exact diagonalization of the latter in a 4x4 cluster, we determine the quasiparticle weight for destruction of a Cu or an O electrons with definite wave vector k. We also derive an approximate but accurate analytical expression which relates the O intensity with the quasiparticle weight in the generalized t-J model, and use it to obtain the O intensity from results of the self-consistent Born approximation. The k-dependence of Cu and O intensities is markedly different. In p…
The thermal conductivity of iron-based superconductor CsFe$_2$As$_2$ single crystal ($T_c =$ 1.81 K) was measured down to 50 mK. A significant residual linear term $κ_0/T$ = 1.27 mW K$^{-2}$ cm$^{-1}$ is observed in zero magnetic field, which is about 1/10 of the normal-state value in upper critical field $H_{c2}$. In low magnetic field, $κ_0/T$ increases rapidly with field. The overall field dependence of $κ_0/T$ for our CsFe$_2$As$_2$ (with residual resistivity $ρ_0$ = 1.80 $μΩ$ cm) lies between the dirty KFe$_2$As$_2$ (with $ρ_0$ = 3.32 $μΩ$ cm) and the clean KFe$_2$As$_2$ (with $ρ_0$ = 0.2…
Free nodal fermionic excitations are simple but interesting examples of fermionic quantum criticality in which the dynamic critical exponent $z=1$, and the quasiparticles are well defined. They arise in a number of physical contexts. We derive the scaling form of the diamagnetic susceptibility, $χ$, at finite temperatures and for finite chemical potential. From measurements in graphene, or in $\mathrm{Bi_{1-x}Sb_{x}}$ ($x=0.04$), one may be able to infer the striking Landau diamagnetic susceptibility of the system at the quantum critical point. Although the quasiparticles in the mean field des…
The superconducting state of underdoped cuprates is often described in terms of a single energy-scale, associated with the maximum of the (d-wave) gap. Here, we report on electronic Raman scattering results, which show that the gap function in the underdoped regime is characterized by two energy scales, depending on doping in opposite manners. Their ratios to the maximum critical temperature are found to be universal in cuprates. Our experimental results also reveal two different quasiparticle dynamics in the underdoped superconducting state, associated with two regions of momentum space: noda…
We investigate the doping dependent low energy, low temperature ($T$ = 5 K) properties of nodal quasiparticles in the d-wave superconductor Bi$_{2.1}$Sr$_{1.9}$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ (Bi2212). By utilizing ultrahigh resolution laser-excited angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we obtain precise band dispersions near $E_{F}$, mean free paths and scattering rates ($Γ$) of quasiparticles. For optimally and overdoped, we obtain very sharp quasiparticle peaks of 8 meV and 6 meV full-width at half-maximum, respectively, in accord with terahertz conductivity. For all doping levels, we find the energ…
The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, characterized by Cooper pairs condensed at finite momentum, has been a long-sought state that remains unresolved in many classes of fermionic systems, including superconductors and ultracold atoms. A fascinating aspect of the FFLO state is the emergence of periodic nodal planes in real space, but its observation is still lacking. Here we investigate the superconducting order parameter at high magnetic fields $H$ applied perpendicular to the $ab$ plane in a high-purity single crystal of FeSe. The heat capacity and magnetic torque provide thermo…
The theoretical model for the quasiparticle self-energy in HTSC is proposed, which is based on the forward scattering peak in the electron-phonon (EPI) interaction. By assuming that EPI dominates, the model explains qualitatively and in a consistent way the recent ARPES results. The latter show a kink in the normal state quasiparticle energy at 70 meV in the nodal direction, which is (surprisingly) not shifted in the superconducting (SC) state, while the singularity at 40 meV in the anti-nodal direction is shifted by the SC gap. The model predicts a dip-hump structure in the spectral function,…
La$_{1.67}$Sr$_{0.33}$CuO$_4$ is not a superconductor and its resistivity follows a purely T$^2$ temperature dependence at very low temperatures. La$_{1.71}$Sr$_{0.29}$CuO$_4$, on the other hand, has a superconducting ground state together with a T-Linear term in its resistivity. The concomitant emergence of these two features below a critical doping is mystifying. Here, I notice that the electron-electron collision rate in the Fermi liquid above the doping threshold is unusually large. The scattering time of nodal quasi-particles expressed in a dimensionless parameter $ζ$ is very close to wha…
