Recent transport properties on the stripe phase in La$_{\text{1.875}}$Ba$_{\text{01.25}}$CuO$_{\text{4}}$ by Li \textit{et al.} found 2-dimensional superconductivity over a wide temperature range including a Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at a temperature T=16K, with 3-dimensional superconducting (SC) ordering only at T=4K. These results contradict the long standing belief that the onset of superconductivity is suppressed by stripe ordering and suggest coexistence of stripe and SC phases. The lack of 3-D superconducting order above T=4K requires an antiphase ordering in the SC state to suppress the interlayer Josephson coupling as proposed by Berg \textit{et al.}. Here we use a renormalized mean field theory for a generalized t-J model to examine in detail the energetics of the spin and charge stripe ordered SC states including possible antiphase domains in the SC order. We find that the energies of these modulated states are very close to each other and that the anisotropy present in the low temperature tetragonal crystal structure favors stripe resonating valence bond states. The stripe antiphase SC states are found to have energies very close,but always above, the ground state energy which suggests additional physical effects are responsible for their stability.
Holes doped into the CuO2 planes of cuprate parent compounds frustrate the antiferromagnetic order. The development of spin and charge stripes provides a compromise between the competing magnetic and kinetic energies. Static stripe order has been observed only in certain particular compounds, but there are signatures which suggest that dynamic stripe correlations are common in the cuprates. Though stripe order is bad for superconducting phase coherence, stripes are compatible with strong pairing. Ironically, magnetic-field-induced stripe order appears to enhance the stability of superconductin…
Non-Fermi-liquid features of the high-Tc cuprates, and specifically the systematic behavior of the resistivity, Hall constant, and thermoelectric power, are shown to result from an electronic structure based on "large-U" and "small-U" orbitals, and the resulting striped structure.
An electronic phase separation model provides a natural explanation for a large variety of experimental results in the cuprates, including evidence for both stripes and larger domains, and a termination of the phase separation in the slightly overdoped regime, when the average hole density equals that on the charged stripes. Several models are presented for charged stripes, showing how density waves, superconductivity, and strong correlations compete with quantum size effects (QSEs) in narrow stripes. The energy bands associated with the charged stripes develop in the middle of the Mott gap, a…
We consider a renormalization group study of the problem of coupled stripes of holes in cuprates. We use a model of a mesh of horizontal and vertical stripes and study the problemof superconductivity via the Josephson coupling. We discuss the evolution of the Fermi surface with doping and temperature, the existence of Luttinger and/or Fermi liquid behavior, the presence of pre-formed Cooper pairs and the symmetry and magnitude of the superconducting order parameter.
Both "large-U" and "small-U" orbitals are used to study the electronic structure of the high-T_c cuprates. A striped structure with three types of carriers are induced, polaron-like "stripons" which carry charge, "quasielectrons" which carry both charge and spin, and "svivons" which carry spin and lattice distortion. Anomalous physical properties of the cuprates are derived, and specifically the systematic behavior of the resistivity, Hall constant, and thermoelectric power. Transitions between pair states of quasielectrons and stripons drive high-temperature superconductivity.
Even before the experimental discovery of spin- and charge-stripe order in La$_{2-x-y}$Nd$_y$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ and La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_4$ at x = 1/8, stripe formation was predicted from theoretical considerations. Nevertheless, a consistent description of the complex coexistence of stripe order with superconductivity has remained a challenge. Here we introduce a Hartree-Fock decoupling scheme which unifies previous approaches and allows for a detailed analysis of the competition between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in real and momentum space. We identify two distinct parameter regimes…
Considering both "large-U" and "small-U" orbitals, it is found that the carriers of the high-Tc cuprates are polaron-like "stripons" carrying charge and located on stripe-like inhomogeneities, "quasi-electrons" carrying charge and spin, and "svivons" carrying spin and lattice distortion. This is shown to result in the observed anomalous spectroscopic and transport properties of the cuprates. Pairing results from transitions between pair states of stripons and quasi-electrons through the exchange of svivons, and a crossover occurs between BCS and Bose-Einstein condensation behaviors.
We propose a model that explains the reduction of $T_c$ due to the pinning of stripes by planar impurity co-doping in cuprates. A geometrical argument about the planar fraction of carriers affected by stripe pinning leads to a a linear $T_c$ suppression as a function of impurity concentration $z$. The critical value $z_c$ for the vanishing of superconductivity is shown to scale like $T_c^2$ in the under-doped regime and becomes universal in the optimally- and over-doped regimes. Our theory agrees very well with the experimental data in single- and bi-layer cuprates co-doped with Zn, Li, Co, et…
The electronic structure of the high-T_c cuprates is studied on the basis of both "large-U" and "small-U" orbitals. A striped structure is obtained, and three types of carriers: polaron-like "stripons" carrying charge, "quasielectrons'' carrying charge and spin, and "svivons" carrying spin and lattice distortion. Anomalous properties of the cuprates and specifically their transport properties are derived. Pairing is found to result from transitions between pair states of quasielectrons and stripons through the exchange of svivons. The pairing results in superconductivity when the stripons cond…
We propose a mechanism for superconductivity suppression in stripe-correlated cuprates based on the pinning of the stripes by impurities, such as Zn. The suppression of superfluid density occurs in the vicinity of the impurity due to the low dimensional character of superfluid carriers on the stripes. Simple geometric argument about the planar fraction of the carriers, affected by stripe pinning, leads to prediction for impurity critical concentration $z_c \sim T^2_c$ and for the linear $T_c$ suppression by Zn doping. We show that our results reproduce the Uemura relation in the pure system an…
It is conjectured that the anomalous spin dynamics observed in the normal state of cuprate superconductors might find its origin in a nearly ordered spin system which is kept in motion by thermally meandering charged domain walls. `Temperature sets the scale' finds a natural explanation, while a crossover to a low temperature quantum domain wall fluid is implied.
The quasiparticles of the high-T_c cuprates are found to consist of: polaron-like "stripons" carrying charge, and associated primarily with large-U orbitals in stripe-like inhomogeneities; "quasielectrons" carrying charge and spin, and associated with hybridized small-U and large-U orbitals; and "svivons" carrying spin and lattice distortion. It is shown that this electronic structure leads to the systematic behavior of spectroscopic and transport properties of the cuprates. High-T_c pairing results from transitions between pair states of stripons and quasielectrons through the exchange of svi…
We propose a model for a spatially modulated collective state of superconducting cuprates in which the electronic properties vary locally in space. In this model the regions of higher hole density (called stripes) are described as Luttinger liquids and the regions of lower density (antiferromagnetic ladders) as an interacting bosonic gas of d$_{x^2-y^2}$ hole pairs. We show that the transition to the superconducting state is topological and driven by decay processes among these elementary excitations in the presence of vibrations.
We study the problem of phase coherence in doped striped cuprates. We assume the stripes to form a network of one-dimensional Luttinger liquids which are dominated by superconducting fluctuations and pinned by impurities. The problem of phase coherence is discussed. We study the dynamics of the superconducting phase using a model of resistively shunted junctions which leads to a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. We show that our results are consistent with recent experiments in Zn-doped cuprates. We also explain the scaling of the superconducting critical temperature $T_c$ with the incommensurab…
We report $^{139}$La nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ ($0.07\leq x \leq 0.15$) and La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_4$ ($x=1/8$) single crystals, focusing on the spin freezing observed in 1/8-doped lanthanum cuprates. Charge stripe order seems to induce the inhomogeneous slowing down of spin fluctuations toward spin order and compete with superconductivity.
Considering both "large-U" and "small-U" orbitals it is found that the high-Tc cuprates are characterized by a striped structure, and three types of carriers: polaron-like "stripons" carrying charge, "quasielectrons" carrying charge and spin, and "svivons" carrying spin and lattice distortion. It is shown that this electronic structure leads to the anomalous physical properties of the cuprates, and specifically the systematic behavior of the resistivity, Hall constant, and thermoelectric power. High-Tc pairing results from transitions between pair states of quasielectrons and stripons through …
Underdoped cuprates exhibit a normal-state pseudogap, and their spins and doped carriers tend to spatially separate into 1- or 2-D stripes. Some view these as central to superconductivity, others as peripheral and merely competing. Using La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$Cu$_{1-y}$Zn$_y$O$_4$ we show that an oxygen isotope effect in $T_c$ and in the superfluid density can be used to distinguish between the roles of stripes and pseudogap and also to detect the presence of impurity scattering. We conclude that stripes and pseudogap are distinct, and both compete and coexist with superconductivity.
We report muon-spin rotation and neutron-scattering experiments on non-magnetic Zn impurity effects on the static spin-stripe order and superconductivity of the La214 cuprates. Remarkably, it was found that, for samples with hole doping x = 1/8, the spin-stripe ordering temperature T_so decreases linearly with Zn doping y and disappears at around y = 4\%, demonstrating a high sensitivity of static spin-stripe order to impurities within a CuO_2 plane. Moreover, T_so is suppressed by Zn in the same manner as is the superconducting transition temperature T_c for samples near optimal hole doping. …
Hole doping into a correlated antiferromagnet leads to topological stripe correlations, involving charge stripes that separate antiferromagnetic spin stripes of opposite phase. Topological spin stripe order causes the spin degrees of freedom within the charge stripes to feel a geometric frustration with their environment. In the case of cuprates, where the charge stripes have the character of a hole-doped two-leg spin ladder, with corresponding pairing correlations. Anti-phase Josephson coupling across the spin stripes can lead to pair-density-wave order, in which broken translation symmetry o…
The stripe phases found in correlated oxides can be viewed as an ordering of the solitons associated with doping the Mott-insulating state. Inspired by the recent observation that the stripes tilt away from the main axis of the crystal lattice in the regime x = 1/8, we propose that a new type of stripe phase is realized in the large doping regime. This new phase should be viewed as a doped version of the microscopically insulating x = 1/8 stripes. The topological excitations associated with the extra doping are fractionally charged kinks along the stripes whose motions make the stripe fluctuat…
We study the spin-density wave (stripe) instability in lattices with mixed low-temperature orthorhombic (LTO) and low-temperature tetragonal (LTT) crystal symmetry. Within an explicit mean-field model it is shown how local LTT regions act as pinning centers for static stripe formation. We calculate the modulations in the local density of states near these local stripe regions and find that mainly the coherence peaks and the van Hove singularity (VHS) are spatially modulated. Lastly, we use the real-space approach to simulate recent tunneling data in the overdoped regime where the VHS has been …
After a brief review of current ideas on stripe order in cuprate high-temperature superconductors, we discuss the quasiparticle Nernst effect in the cuprates, with focus on its evolution in non-superconducting stripe and related nematic states. In general, we find the Nernst signal to be strongly enhanced by nearby van-Hove singularities and Lifshitz transitions in the band structure, implying that phases with translation symmetry breaking often lead to a large quasiparticle Nernst effect due to the presence of multiple small Fermi pockets. Open orbits may contribute to the Nernst signal as we…
Transport measurements provide important characterizations of the nature of stripe order in the cuprates. Initial studies of systems such as La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4) demonstrated the strong anisotropy between in-plane and c-axis resistivities, but also suggested that stripe order results in a tendency towards insulating behavior within the planes at low temperature. More recent work on La(2-x)Ba(x)CuO(4) with x=1/8 has revealed the occurrence of quasi-two-dimensional superconductivity that onsets with spin-stripe order. The suppression of three-dimensional superconductivity indicates a frus…
Using Cu NQR in Eu-doped La_(2-x)Sr_xCuO_4 we find the evidence of the pinned stripe phase at 1.3K for 0.08<x<0.18. The pinned fraction increases by one order of magnitude near hole doping x=1/8. The NQR lineshape reveals three inequivalent Cu positions. A dramatic change of the NQR signal for x > 0.18 correlating with the onset of bulk superconductivity corresponds to the depinning of the stripe phase.
In this paper we studied the fermi arc and the fermi pocket in cuprates in a short-range diagonal stripe phase with wave vectors $(7π/8, 7π/8)$, which reproduce with a high accuracy the positions and sizes of the fermi arc and fermi pocket and the superstructure in cuprates observed by Meng et al\cite{Meng}. The low-energy spectral function indicates that the fermi pocket results from the main band and the shadow band at the fermi energy. Above the fermi energy the shadow band gradually departs away from the main band, leaving a fermi arc. Thus we conclude that the fermi arc and fermi pocket c…
Some recent evidence for the existence of dynamic, metallic stripes in the 214-family of cuprates is reviewed. The mechanism of stripe pinning is considered, and changes in the charge density within stripes between the pinned and dynamic phases is discussed. From a purely experimental perspective, dynamic charge stripes are fully compatible with nodal ``quasiparticles'' and other electronic properties common to all superconducting cuprates.
Mean-field study of the stripe structures is conducted for a hole-doped Hubbard model. For bond-directed stripes, the Fermi surface consists of segments of an open surface and the boundaries of the hole pockets which appear in the diagonal region of momenta under certain conditions. Segments of the first type are due to one-dimensional bands of states localized on the domain walls. The relation of bands to the doping and temperature dependences of the Hall constant is discussed. In connection with the observation of quantum magnetic oscillations, a systematic search for the electron pockets ha…
We briefly summarize two related calculations. First, we demonstrate that the instabilities (either nesting or pairing) associated with the high-T_c cuprates can be described by an SO(6) transformation group. There are two independent 6-dimensional representations (`superspins'). One superspin combines Zhang's 5-component superspin with a flux phase instability; the other involves a charge density wave, s-wave superconductivity, and an exotic spin current. The second calculation is a self-consistent slave boson calculation, which provides a good description of the doping dependence of the phot…
A phase separation model is presented for the stripe phase of the cuprates, which allows the doping dependence of the photoemission spectra to be calculated. The idealized limit of a well-ordered array of magnetic and charged stripes is analyzed, including effects of long-range Coulomb repulsion. Remarkably, down to the limit of two-cell wide stripes, the dispersion can be interpreted as essentially a superposition of the two end-phase dispersions, with superposed minigaps associated with the lattice periodicity. The largest minigap falls near the Fermi level; it can be enhanced by proximity t…
We present detailed neutron scattering studies of the static and dynamic stripes in an optimally doped high-temperature superconductor, La$_2$CuO$_{4+y}$. We find that the dynamic stripes do not disperse towards the static stripes in the limit of vanishing energy transfer. We conclude that the dynamic stripes observed in neutron scattering experiments are not the Goldstone modes associated with the broken symmetry of the simultaneously observed static stripes, but rather that the signals originate from different domains in the sample. These domains may be related by structural twinning, or may…
A phenomenological model defined in a two dimensional lattice is employed to investigate the d-wave superconductivity and the competing antiferromagnetic order in cuprate superconductors. Near the optimally doped regime, we show that it is possible to induce the spin density wave (SDW) and the accompanying charge density wave (CDW) orders with stripe modulations by applying a magnetic field. The periods of the magnetic field induced SDW and CDW are $8a$ and $4a$, respectively. The spatial profiles of the local density of states (LDOS) at various bias energies have also been numerically studied…
The Nd-doped cuprate La_{2-y-x}Nd_ySr_xCuO_4 displays a first-order phase transition at T_d (= 74 K for x=0.10, y = 0.60) to a low-temperature tetragonal (LTT) phase. A magnetic field H applied || the a-axis leads to an increase in T_d, whereas T_d is decreased when H || c. These effects show that magnetic ordering involving both Nd and Cu spins plays a key role in driving the LTO-LTT transition. Related anisotropic effects are observed in the uniform susceptibility and the in-plane magnetoresistance.
Recent quantum oscillation measurements on underdoped cuprates are shown to be consistent with the predictions of a mean field theory of the 1/8 magnetic antiphase stripe order proposed to occur in high-$T_c$ cuprates. In particular, for intermediate values of the stripe order parameter, the magneto-transport is found to be dominated by an electron pocket.
Superconductivity in layered cuprates is induced by doping holes into a parent antiferromagnetic insulator. It is now recognized that another common emergent order involves charge stripes, and our understanding of the relationship between charge stripes and superconductivity has been evolving. Here we review studies of 214 cuprate families obtained by doping La$_2$CuO$_4$. Charge-stripe order tends to compete with bulk superconductivity; nevertheless, there is plentiful evidence that it coexists with two-dimensional superconductivity. This has been interpreted in terms of pair-density-wave sup…
Charge and spin stripe order is a type of electronic crystal observed in certain layered cuprates associated with high-temperature superconductivity. Quantum-disordered stripes could be relevant for understanding the superconductivity. Here I discuss recent experimental characterizations of the stripe-ordered state in La(1.875)Ba(0.125)CuO(4), and compare them with properties of superconducting compositions.
Understanding the electron pairing in hole-doped cuprate superconductors has been a challenge, in particular because the "normal" state from which it evolves is unprecedented. Now, after three and a half decades of research, involving a wide range of experimental characterizations, it is possible to delineate a clear and consistent cuprate story. It starts with doping holes into a charge-transfer insulator, resulting in in-gap states. These states exhibit a pseudogap resulting from the competition between antiferromagnetic superexchange $J$ between nearest-neighbor Cu atoms (a real-space inter…
We investigate the superconducting order parameter, the spectral and optical properties in a stripe model with spin (charge) domain-derived scattering potential $V_{s}$ ($V_{c}$). We show that the charge domain-derived scattering is less effective than the spin scattering on the suppression of superconductivity. For $V_{s}\gg V_{c}$, the spectral weight concentrates on the ($π,0$) antinodal region, and a finite energy peak appears in the optical conductivity with the disappearance of the Drude peak. But for $V_{s}\approx V_{c}$, the spectral weight concentrates on the ($π/2,π/2$) nodal region,…
Recent experiments indicate that the tendency toward the formation of unidirectional charge density waves ("stripes") is common to various underdoped cuprates. We discuss momentum-resolved spectral properties of valence-bond stripes, comparing the situations of ideal and short-range stripe order, the latter being relevant for weak and/or disorder-pinned stripes. We find clear signatures of ordered stripes, although matrix element effects suppress most shadow band features. With decreasing stripe correlation length, stripe signatures are quickly washed out, the only remaining effect being a bro…
We investigate the formation of charge domain walls in an electron-doped extended Hubbard model for the superconducting cuprates. Within an unrestricted Hartree-Fock approach, extended by the introduction of slave-bosons to obtain a more proper treatment of strong correlations, we demonstrate the occurrence of stripes in the (1,1) and (1,-1) directions having one doped electron per stripe site. The different filling, direction and width of these electron-doped stripes with respect to those obtained in the hole-doped systems have interesting observable consequences, which are discussed.
The carriers in the high-Tc cuprates are found to be polaron-like "stripons" carrying charge and located in stripe-like inhomogeneities, "quasi-electrons" carrying charge and spin, and "svivons" carrying spin and some lattice distortion. The anomalous spectroscopic and transport properties of the cuprates are understood. The stripe-like inhomogeneities result from the Bose condensation of the svivon field, and the speed of their dynamics is determined by the width of the double-svivon neutron-resonance peak. The connection of this peak to the peak-dip-hump gap structure observed below Tc emerg…
Based on the unrestricted Gutzwiller approximation we study the possibility that the diagonal incommensurate spin scattering in the spin glass phase of lanthanum cuprates originates from stripe formation. Similar to the metallic phase two types of diagonal stripe structures appear to be stable: (a) site-centered textures which have one hole per site along the stripe and (b) ferromagnetic stair-case structures which are the diagonal equivalent to bond-centered stripes in the metallic phase and which on average have a filling of 3/4 holes per stripe site. We give a detailed analysis of the stabi…
We present a study of the in-plane and out-of-plane magnetoresistance (MR) in heavily-underdoped, antiferromagnetic YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{6+x}, which reveals a variety of striking features. The in-plane MR demonstrates a "d-wave"-like anisotropy upon rotating the magnetic field H within the ab plane. With decreasing temperature below 20-25 K, the system acquires memory: exposing a crystal to the magnetic field results in a persistent in-plane resistivity anisotropy. The overall features can be explained by assuming that the CuO_2 planes contain a developed array of stripes accommodating the doped ho…
We study stripes in cuprates within the one-band and the three-band Hubbard model. Magnetic and charge excitations are described within the time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation. A variety of experiments (charge profile from resonant soft X-ray scattering, incommensurability vs. doping, optical excitations, magnetic excitations, etc.) are described within the same approach.
The effect of Zn substitution in the CuO2 plane on the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, was studied for the La2-xSrxCu1-yZnyO4 and YBa2(Cu1-yZny)3O7-d compounds over a wide range of hole concentration, p, and Zn content (y). Zn induced rate of suppression of Tc, dTc(p)/dy, was found to be strongly p-dependent and showed a monotonic variation with p, except in the vicinity of p ~ 0.125, i.e., near the so-called 1/8th anomaly where the charge/spin stripe correlations are at their strongest in hole doped cuprates. The magnitude of dTc(p)/dy decreased significantly around this hole conc…
The evidence of edge-gaps around the M-points in the metallic state of underdoped cuprates has triggered a very active debate on their origin. We first consider the possibility that this spectroscopic feature results from a quasi-static charge ordering taking place in the underdoped regime. It comes out that to explain the coexistence of gaps and arcs on the Fermi surface the charge modulation should be in an eggbox form. In the lack of evidences for that, we then investigate the local pairing induced by charge-stripe fluctuations. A proper description of the strong anisotropy of both the inte…
Based on the time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation we study the possibility that the diagonal incommensurate spin scattering in strongly underdoped lanthanum cuprates originates from antiferromagnetic domain walls (stripes). Calculation of the dynamic spin response for stripes in the diagonal phase yields the characteristic hour glass dispersion with the crossing of low energy Goldstone and high-energy branches at a characteristic energy Ecross at the antiferromagnetic wave-vector Q_{AF}. The high energy part is close to the parent antiferromagnet. Our results suggest that inelastic neutron …
Structural compliance is the ability of a crystal structure to accommodate variations in local atomic bond-lengths without incurring large strain energies. We show that the structural compliance of cuprates is relatively small, so that short, highly doped, Cu-O-Cu bonds in stripes are subject to a tensile misfit strain. We develop a model to describe the effect of misfit strain on charge ordering in the copper oxygen planes of oxide materials and illustrate some of the low energy stripe nanostructures that can result.
Stripe fluctuations in La2NiO4.17 have been studied by 139La NMR using the field and temperature dependence of the linewidth and relaxation rates. In the formation process of the stripes the NMR line intensity is maximal below 230K, starts to diminish around 140K, disappears around 50K and recovers at 4K. These results are shown to be consistent with, but completely complementary to neutron measurements, and to be generic for oxygen doped nickelates and underdoped cuprates.
Within a model that supports stripe spin and charge order coexisting with a d$_{x^2-y^2}$-wave superconducting phase, we study the self-consistently obtained electronic structure and the associated transverse dynamical spin susceptibility. In the coexisting phase of superconducting and static stripe order, the resulting particle-hole continuum can strongly damp parts of the low-energy spin wave branches. This provides insight into recent inelastic neutron scattering data revealing the dispersion of the low-energy collective magnetic modes of lanthanum based cuprate superconductors.
Motivated by experiments on LBCO-1/8 which suggest that stripe order co-exists with two-dimensional pairing without inter-layer phase coherence over an extended range of temperatures, we determine the inter-layer Josephson coupling in the presence of stripe order. We employ a mean-field description of bond-centered stripes, with a zero-momentum superconducting condensate and alternating stripe directions pinned by the low-temperature tetragonal (LTT) lattice structure. We show that the Fermi-surface reconstruction arising from strong stripe order can suppress the Josephson coupling between adj…
We calculate for La2CuO4 the phonon-induced redistribution of the electronic charge density in the insulating, the underdoped pseudogap and the more conventional metallic state as obtained for optimal and overdoping, respectively. The investigation is performed for the anomalous high-frequency-oxygen-bond stretching modes (OBSM) which experimentally are known to display a strong softening of the frequencies upon doping in the cuprates. This most likely generic anomalous behaviour of the OBSM has been shown to be due to a strong nonlocal electron-phonon interaction (EPI) mediated by charge fluc…
Using a phenomenological lattice model of coupled spin and charge modes, we determine the spin susceptibility in the presence of fluctuating stripe charge order. We assume the charge fluctuations to be slow compared to those of the spins, and combine Monte Carlo simulations for the charge order parameter with exact diagonalization of the spin sector. Our calculations unify the spin dynamics of both static and fluctuating stripe phases and support the notion of a universal spin excitation spectrum in doped cuprate superconductors.
We propose a unified approach for describing the carrier localization, metal-insulator transitions (MITs) and stripe formation in high-$T_c$ cuprates. The ground-state energy of a carrier interacting with a defect and with lattice vibrations is calculated within the continuum model and adiabatic approximation. At low doping levels, hole carriers in $\rm{La}$-based systems with large-radius dopants are localized near the dopants with the formation of hydrogenic impurity centers.
Charge excitations were studied for stipe-ordered 214 compounds, La$_{5/3}$Sr$_{1/3}$NiO$_{4}$ and 1/8-doped La$_{2}$(Ba, Sr)$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in hard x-ray regime. We have observed charge excitations at the energy transfer of 1 eV with the momentum transfer corresponding to the charge stripe spatial period both for the diagonal (nikelate) and parallel (cuprates) stripes. These new excitations can be interpreted as a collective stripe excitation or charge excitonic mode to a stripe-related in-gap state.
Neutron and X-ray scattering studies have provided strong evidence for coupled spatial modulations of charge and spin densities in layered nickelates and cuprates. The accumulated results for La(2-x)Sr(x)NiO(4+d) are consistent with the strongly-modulated topological-stripe concept. Clues from Nd-doped La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) suggest similar behavior for the cuprates. The experimental results are summarized, and features that conflict with an interpretation based on a Fermi-surface instability are emphasized. A rationalization for the differences in transport properties between the cuprates and nic…
We present a model for the combined nematic and `smectic' or stripe-like orders seen in recent scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments in cuprates. We model the stripe order as an electronic charge density wave with associated Peierls distortion -- a `Pomeranchuk wave'. Disorder restricts this primary order to nanoscale domains, while secondary coupling to strain generates nematic order with considerably longer range.
We demonstrate that the strong anomalies in the high frequency LO-phonon spectrum in cuprate superconductors can in principle be explained by the enhanced electronic polarizability associated with the self-organized one dimensionality of metallic stripes. Contrary to the current interpretation in terms of transversal stripe fluctuations, the anomaly should occur at momenta parallel to the stripes. The doping dependence of the anomaly is naturally explained, and we predict that the phonon line-width and the spread of the anomaly in the transverse momentum decrease with increasing temperature wh…
We examine the effects of disorder on striped phases in high-temperature superconductors and related materials. In the presence of quenched disorder, pinning by the atomic lattice - which might give rise to commensuration effects - is irrelevant for the stripe array on large length scales. As a consequence, the stripes have divergent displacement fluctuations and topological defects are present at all temperatures. Therefore the positional order of the stripe array is short ranged, with a finite correlation length even at zero temperature. Thus lock-in phenomena can exist only as crossovers bu…
The in-plane resistivity and out-of-plane resistivity of non-superconducting RBCO (R = Y, Tm) and Fe-doped Bi2212 single crystals are discussed. The comparison of electrical transport properties of the cuprates and quasi-one dimensional (1D) (TMTSF)2PF6 organic conductor suggests that RBCO and Bi2212 exhibit 1D transport properties, and the step rise at low temperatures in the resistivities of the cuprates and quasi-1D organic conductor is due to charge-density-wave ordering. We discuss also phonon-electron interactions in cuprates at low temperatures.
