Nature of the charge-density wave excitations in cuprates
J. Q. lin, H. Miao, D. G. Mazzone, G. D. Gu, A. Nag, A. C. Walters, M. Garcia-Fernandez, A. Barbour, J. Pelliciari, I. Jarrige, M. Oda, K. Kurosawa, N. Momono, … 展开作者
J. Q. lin, H. Miao, D. G. Mazzone, G. D. Gu, A. Nag, A. C. Walters, M. Garcia-Fernandez, A. Barbour, J. Pelliciari, I. Jarrige, M. Oda, K. Kurosawa, N. Momono, K. Zhou, V. Bisogni, X. Liu, M. P. M. Dean
The discovery of charge-density wave (CDW)-related effects in the resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra of cuprates holds the tantalizing promise of clarifying the interactions that stabilize the electronic order. Here, we report a comprehensive RIXS study of La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) finding that CDW effects persist up to a remarkably high doping level of x = 0.21 before disappearing at x = 0.25. The inelastic excitation spectra remain essentially unchanged with doping despite crossing a topological transition in the Fermi surface. This indicates that the spectra contain little or no direct coupling to electronic excitations near the Fermi surface, rather they are dominated by the resonant cross-section for phonons and CDW-induced phonon-softening. We interpret our results in terms of a CDW that is generated by strong correlations and a phonon response that is driven by the CDW-induced modification of the lattice.
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 recent development of x-ray scattering techniques revealed the charge-excitation spectrum in high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors. While the presence of a dispersive signal in the high-energy charge-excitation spectrum is well accepted in the electron-doped cuprates, its interpretation and universality are controversial. Since charge fluctuations are observed ubiquitously in cuprate superconductors, the understanding of its origin is a pivotal issue. Here, we employ the layered $t$-$J$ model with the long-range Coulomb interaction and show that an acoustic-like plasmon mode with a gap at in-…
The nature of the spin excitations in superconducting cuprates is a key question toward a unified understanding of the cuprate physics from long-range antiferromagnetism to superconductivity. The intense spin excitations up to the over-doped regime revealed by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering bring new insights as well as questions like how to understand their persistence or their relation to the collective excitations in ordered magnets (magnons). Here, we study the evolution of the spin excitations upon hole-doping the superconducting cuprate Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ by disentangling…
Two-particle (2-p) excitations such as spin and charge excitations play a key role in high-Tc cuprate superconductors (HTSC). On the basis of a parameter-free theory, which extends the Variational Cluster Approach (a recently developed embedded cluster method) to 2-p excitations, the magnetic excitations of HTSC are shown to be reproduced for a Hubbard model within the relevant strong-coupling regime. In particular, the resonance mode in the underdoped regime, its intensity and "hour-glass" dispersion are in good overall agreement with experiments.
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.
Recent development in the physics of high-temperature cuprate superconductivity is reviewed, with special emphasis on the phenomena of unconventional and non-universal low-energy excitations of hole- and electron-type cuprate superconductors and the possible physical origin. A phenomenology based on coexisting competing orders with cuprate superconductivity in the ground state appears to provide consistent account for a wide range of experimental findings, including the presence (absence) of pseudogaps and Fermi arcs above the superconducting transition $T_c$ in hole-type (electron-type) cupra…
This article summarizes and extends the recent developments in the microscopic modeling of the magnetic excitations in cuprate two-leg ladder systems. The microscopic Hamiltonian comprises dominant Heisenberg exchange terms plus an additional four-spin interaction which is about five times smaller. We give an overview over the relevant energies like the one-triplon dispersion, the energies of two-triplon bound states and the positions of multi-triplon continua and over relevant spectral properties like spectral weights and spectral densities in the parameter regime appropriate for cuprate syst…
A theory for the dispersion of collective magnetic excitations in superconducting cuprates is presented with the aim to cover both high and low doping regimes. Besides of spin fluctuations describable in the random phase approximation (RPA) we allow for local spin rotations within a mode-coupling theory. At low temperatures and moderately large correlation lengths we obtain two branches of excitations which disperse up- and downwards exhibiting the hourglass behavior observed experimentally at intermediate dopings. At large and small dopings our theory essentially reduces to the RPA and spin w…
Recently resonant inelastic x-ray scattering experiments reported fine details of the charge excitations around the in-plane momentum ${\bf q}_{\parallel}=(0,0)$ for various doping rates in electron-doped cuprates ${\rm La_{2-x}Ce_xCuO_4}$. We find that those new experimental data are well captured by acoustic-like plasmon excitations in a microscopic study of the layered $t$-$J$ model with the long-range Coulomb interaction. The acoustic-like plasmon is not a usual plasmon typical to the two-dimensional system, but has a small gap proportional to the interlayer hopping $t_z$.
We identify a new kind of elementary excitations, spin-rotons, in the doped Mott insulator. They play a central role in deciding the superconducting transition temperature Tc, resulting in a simple Tc formula,Tc=Eg/6, with Eg as the characteristic energy scale of the spin rotons. We show that the degenerate S=1 and S=0 rotons can be probed by neutron scattering and Raman scattering measurements, respectively, in good agreement with the magnetic resonancelike mode and the Raman A1g mode observed in the high-Tc cuprates.
We have recently used inelastic neutron scattering to measure the magnetic excitation spectrum of La(1.875)Ba(0.125)CuO(4) up to 200 meV. This particular cuprate is of interest because it exhibits static charge and spin stripe order. The observed spectrum is remarkably similar to that found in superconducting YBa(2)Cu(3)O(6+x) and La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4); the main differences are associated with the spin gap. We suggest that essentially all observed features of the magnetic scattering from cuprate superconductors can be described by a universal magnetic excitation spectrum multiplied by a spin gap …
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.
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 argue that the exciton scenario for the magnetic resonance in the cuprate superconductors yields a small spectral weight of the resonance, in agreement with experiment. We show that the small weight is related to its concentration in a small region of momentum and energy. Despite this, we find that a large fermionic self-energy can indeed be generated by a resonance with such properties, i.e., the scattering from the resonance substantially affects the electronic properties of the cuprates below $T_c$.
We show that, contrary to common lore, in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the copper L- and M-edge direct spin-flip scattering is in principle allowed. We demonstrate how this possibility can be exploited to probe the momentum dependent magnetic properties of cuprates such as the high Tc superconductors and compute in detail the relevant local and momentum dependent magnetic scattering amplitudes, which we compare to the elastic and $dd$-excitation scattering intensities. For cuprates these results put RIXS as a technique on the same footing as neutron scattering.
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) tuned for the Cu L edge is a possible tool to detect charge excitations in cuprate superconductors. We theoretically investigate the possibility for observing a collective charge excitation by the RIXS. The RIXS process via the intermediate state inevitably makes the spectral weight of charge excitation stronger in electron doping than in hole doping. Electron-hole asymmetry also appears in the dynamical charge structure factor, showing a new enhanced small-momentum low-energy mode in electron doping. These facts indicate a possibility of detecting th…
A unified theory for the cuprates and the iron-based superconductors is derived on the basis of common features in their electronic structures including quasi-two-dimensionality, and the large-U nature of the electron orbitals close to E_F (smaller-U hybridized orbitals reside at bonding and antibonding states away from E_F). Consequently, low-energy excitations are described in terms of auxiliary particles, representing combinations of atomic-like electron configurations, rather than electron-like quasiparticles. The introduction of a Lagrange Bose field is necessary to enable the treatments …
A microscopic theory of spin excitations in strongly-correlated electronic systems within the t-J model is discussed. An exact representation for the dynamic spin susceptibility is derived. In the normal state, the excitation spectrum reveals a crossover from spin-wave-like excitations at low doping to overdamped paramagnons above the optimal doping. At low temperatures, the resonance mode at the antiferromagnetic wave vector Q = π(1,1) emerges which is explained by a strong suppression of the spin excitation damping caused by a spin gap at Q rather than by opening of a superconducting gap. A …
We used resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) with and without analysis of the scattered photon polarization, to study dispersive spin excitations in the high temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O6+x over a wide range of doping levels (0.1 < x < 1). The excitation profiles were carefully monitored as the incident photon energy was detuned from the resonant condition, and the spin excitation energy was found to be independent of detuning for all x. These findings demonstrate that the largest fraction of the spin-flip RIXS profiles in doped cuprates arises from magnetic collective modes, rath…
There exists increasing evidence that the phase diagram of the high-transition temperature (Tc) cuprate superconductors is controlled by a quantum critical point. One distinct theoretical proposal is that, with decreasing hole-carrier concentration, a transition occurs to an ordered state with two circulating orbital currents per CuO2 square. Below the 'pseudogap' temperature T* (T* > Tc), the theory predicts a discrete order parameter and two weakly-dispersive magnetic excitations in structurally simple compounds that should be measurable by neutron scattering. Indeed, novel magnetic order an…
We report a Cu K-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) study of high-Tc cuprates. Momentum-resolved charge excitations in the CuO2 plane are examined from parent Mott insulators to carrier-doped superconductors. The Mott gap excitation in undoped insulators is found to commonly show a larger dispersion along the [pi,pi] direction than the [pi,0] direction. On the other hand, the resonance condition displays material dependence. Upon hole doping, the dispersion of the Mott gap excitation becomes weaker and an intraband excitation appears as a continuum intensity below the gap at the s…
Angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy study is reported on a high quality optimally doped Bi2Sr1.6La0.4CuO6+delta high Tc superconductor. In the antinodal region with maximal d-wave gap, the symbolic superconducting coherence peak, which has been widely observed in multi-CuO2-layer cuprate superconductors, is unambiguously observed in a single layer system. The associated peak-dip separation is just about 19 meV, which is much smaller than its counterparts in multi-layered compounds, but correlates with the energy scales of spin excitations in single layer cuprates.
Superconductivity originates from the coupling between charge carriers and bosonic excitations of either phononic or electronic origin. Identifying the most relevant pairing glue is a key step towards a clear understanding of the unconventional superconductivity. Here, by applying the ultrafast optical spectroscopy on the electron-doped cuprates La$_{1.9}$Ce$_{0.1}$CuO$_{4\pmδ}$, we discern a bosonic mode of electronic origin that has the strongest coupling with the charge carriers near $T_c$. We argue that this mode is associated with the two-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations, a…
Motivated by recent inelastic neutron scattering experiments up to a high-energy region for La-based cuprates, we compute (q,omega) maps of the imaginary part of the dynamical magnetic susceptibility chi(q,omega) in the slave-boson mean-field approximation to the two-dimensional t-J model. While the strong spectral weight appears at incommensurate positions, namely at q neq Q =(pi,pi), for low energy, the incommensurate signals disperse with increasing omega and finally merge into a commensurate signal at a particular energy omega=omega_Q. These features are seen in both the d-wave pairing sta…
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 …
Motivated by recent inelastic neutron scattering (INS) experiments on La-based cuprates and based on the fermiology theories, we study the spin susceptibility for La-based (e.g., La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$) and Y-based (e.g., YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_y$) cuprates, respectively. The spin excitation in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_y$ is dominated by a sharp resonance peak at the frequency 40 meV in the superconducting state. Below and above the resonance frequency, the incommensurate (IC) peaks develop and the intensity of the peaks decreases dramatically. In the normal state, the resonant excitation does not occur and …
Using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Cu $L$-absorption edge, we have observed intense, dispersive spin excitations in highly overdoped Tl$_2$Ba$_2$CuO$_{6+δ}$ (superconducting $T_c =6$ K), a compound whose normal-state charge transport and thermodynamic properties have been studied extensively and shown to exhibit canonical Fermi-liquid behavior. Complementary RIXS experiments on slightly overdoped Tl$_2$Ba$_2$CuO$_{6+δ}$ ($T_c =89$ K) and on Y$_{1-x}$Ca$_{x}$Ba$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+δ}$ compounds spanning a wide range of doping levels indicate that these excitations exhibit energi…
Recently it was reported experimentally that the monolayer graphene can be doped to beyond the Van Hove singularity. We study theoretically the possible superconductivity and the corresponding spin excitations of the monolayer graphene in this doping region. A static spin-density-wave state is favorable due to the nested Fermi surface as the Fermi level is doped to the Van Hove singularity point. Superconductivity may be realized upon further doping. The spin excitations in the superconducting state are studied theoretically based on the random phase approximation. The overall features are qua…
We use neutron scattering to study magnetic excitations near the antiferromagnetic wave vector in the underdoped single-layer cuprate HgBa2CuO4+δ (superconducting transition temperature Tc ~ 88 K, pseudogap temperature T* ~ 220 K). The response is distinctly enhanced below T* and exhibits a Y-shaped dispersion in the pseudogap state, whereas the superconducting state features an X-shaped (hourglass) dispersion and a further resonance-like enhancement. A large spin gap of about 40 meV is observed in both states. This phenomenology is reminiscent of that exhibited by bilayer cuprates. The resona…
We review the explanation for resonant neutron scattering experiments in $YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+δ}$ and $Bi_2 Sr_2 Ca_2 O_{8+δ}$ materials from the point of view of triplet excitation in the particle-particle channel, the pi excitation. Relation of these resonances to the superconducting condensation energy and their role in stabilizing the superconducting state is discussed. Due to the superconducting fluctuations, the pi resonance may appear as a broad peak above Tc. Analogue problem to the pi excitation for the case of s-wave pairing, the eta excitation, is considered in the strong coupling limit w…
High-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) mysteriously emerges upon doping holes or electrons into insulating copper oxides with antiferromagnetic (AFM) order. It has been thought that the large energy scale of magnetic excitations, compared to phonon energies for example, lies at the heart of an electronically-driven superconducting phase at high temperatures. However, despite extensive studies, little information is available for comparison of high-energy magnetic excitations of hole- and electron-doped superconductors to assess a possible correlation with the respective superconducting tran…
The recent scanning tunnelling results of Alldredge et al on Bi-2212 and of Hanaguri et al on Na-CCOC are examined from the perspective of the BCS/BEC boson-fermion resonant crossover model for the mixed-valent HTSC cuprates. The model specifies the two energy scales controlling the development of HTSC behaviour and the dichotomy often now alluded to between nodal and antinodal phenomena in the HTSC cuprates. Indication is extracted from the data as to how the choice of the particular HTSC system sees these two basic energy scales (cursive-U, the local pair binding energy and, Delta-sc, the no…
Recent measurements of quasiparticles in hole-doped cuprates reveal highly unusual features: 1) the doping-independent Fermi velocity, 2) two energy scales in the quasiparticle spectral function, and 3) a suppression of the low energy spectral weight near the zone center. The underlying mechanism is under hot debate. We addressed these important issues by a novel two-mode variational Monte Carlo (VMC) study of the t-J model. We obtained results in agreement with the experiments but without invoking extrinsic effects. Besides, we resolved a long standing issue of the sum rule for quasiparticle …
We propose that cuprate superconductors are in the vicinity of a spontaneous d-wave type Fermi surface symmetry breaking, often called a d-wave Pomeranchuk instability. This idea is explored by means of a comprehensive study of magnetic excitations within the slave-boson mean-field theory of the t-J model. We can naturally understand the pronounced xy anisotropy of magnetic excitations in untwinned YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{y} and the sizable change of incommensurability of magnetic excitations at the transition temperature to the low-temperature tetragonal lattice structure in La_{2-x}Ba_{x}CuO_{4}. In…
Recent neutron scattering experiments have revealed that the generic form of the magnetic excitations in the high-Tc cuprates of wide range of doping has the so-called "hourglass" shape; it features both upward and downward excitations at the incommensurate (IC) momenta spanning from the resonance peak at the commensurate momentum $(π,π)$. We propose the two-component spin-fermion model as a minimal phenomenological model which has both local spins and itinerant fermions as independent degrees of freedom. Our calculations of the dynamic spin correlation function provide good agreement with exp…
We performed scanning tunneling spectroscopic experiments on hole-doped NdBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-δ}$. The d$I$/d$V$ curves obtained at 4.2 K are asymmetric with clear peak-dip and hump structures. Energy derivatives of these curves show peaks at energies beyond the dip features. Highly precise full potential bandstructure calculations confirm a featureless electronic density of states in that energy region. Our results indicate that tunneling electrons couple to a collective mode in the CuO$_2$ plane.
Unveiling the nature of collective charge excitations in a cuprate superconductor
The Chinese University of Hong Kong（香港中文大学）；Universität Zürich（苏黎世大学）；Diamond Light Source（钻石光源）；Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology（韩国科学技术院）；KTH Royal Institute of Technology（瑞典皇家理工学院）；The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research（马克斯·普朗克固体研究所）；Institut Néel, CNRS and Université Grenoble Alpes（内尔研究所，法国国家科学研究中心与格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学）
Antiferromagnetic correlations have been argued to be the cause of the d-wave superconductivity and the pseudogap phenomena exhibited by the cuprates. Although the antiferromagnetic response in the pseudogap state has been reported for a number of compounds, there exists no information for structurally simple HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$. Here we report neutron scattering results for HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$ (superconducting transition temperature T$_c$ $\sim$ 71 K, pseudogap temperature T* $\sim$ 305 K) that demonstrate the absence of the two most prominent features of the magnetic excitation spectrum of t…
The main relaxation mechanism of crystal-field excitations in rare-earth ions in cuprates is believed to be provided by the fluctuations of crystalline electric field induced by a dynamic charge inhomogeneity generic for the doped cuprates. We address the generalized granular model as one of the model scenario for such an ingomogeneity where the cuprate charge subsystem remind that of Wigner crystal with the melting transition and phonon-like positional excitation modes. Formal description of R-ion relaxation coincides with that of recently suggested magnetoelastic mechanism.
The low-energy excitations of the lightly doped cuprates were studied by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A finite gap was measured over the entire Brillouin zone, including along the d_{x^2 - y^2} nodal line. This effect was observed to be generic to the normal states of numerous cuprates, including hole-doped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} and Ca_{2-x}Na_{x}CuO_{2}Cl_{2} and electron-doped Nd_{2-x}Ce_{x}CuO_{4}. In all compounds, the gap appears to close with increasing carrier doping. We consider various scenarios to explain our results, including the possible effects of chemical disorder,…
We present a short account of the present experimental situation of stripes in cuprates followed by a review of our present understanding of their ground state and excited state properties. Collective modes, the dynamical structure factor, and the optical conductivity of stripes are computed using the time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation applied to realistic one band and three band Hubbard models, and are found to be in excellent agreement with experiment. On the other hand, experiments like angle-resolved photoemission and scanning tunneling microscopy show the coexistence of stripes at hi…
The depairing (upper critical) field $H_{c2}$ in hole-doped cuprates has been inferred from magnetization curves $M$-$H$ measured by torque magnetometry in fields $H$ up to 45 T. We discuss the implications of the results for the pair binding energy, the Nernst onset temperature, fluctuations and the nature of the Meissner transition at $T_c$.
The dynamical spin susceptibility chi'' at wave vector (pi, pi) and the spectrum pi'' of the spin-triplet particle--particle excitation with center of mass momentum (pi, pi) (pi-excitation) are considered in the slave-boson formulation of the t--J-model. Propagators are calculated in a diagrammatic t-matrix approximation in the d-wave superconducting state for a wide doping range. The resulting spectra chi'' and pi'' both show a resonance at a doping dependent energy, in qualitative agreement with recent numerical cluster calculations. In underdoped systems, the peak position is comparable to …
We have computed alpha^2F's for the hole-doped cuprates within the framework of the one-band Hubbard model, where the full magnetic response of the system is treated properly. The d-wave pairing weight alpha^2F_d is found to contain not only a low energy peak due to excitations near (pi,pi) expected from neutron scattering data, but to also display substantial spectral weight at higher energies due to contributions from other parts of the Brillouin zone as well as pairbreaking ferromagnetic excitations at low energies. The resulting solutions of the Eliashberg equations yield transition temper…
The Josephson coupling between optimally cuprate superconductors separated by a spacer with a finite energy cooperon excitation which contributes to the Josephson coupling strength, is examined. For an underdoped cuprate barrier in its normal state, the YRZ model gives a good description of the temperature dependent enhanced Josephson coupling. A detailed examination of origin of the enhancement shows a significant contribution from the cooperon excitation which is comparable to that from nodal quasiparticles.
The Fermi-liquid-like (FL) resistivity recently observed in clean HgBa2CuO4 below the pseudogap temperature was related to carriers at the nodal points on the Fermi surface [4]. We show that this necessitates important implications for the electronic spectrum of underdoped (UD) cuprates in whole. Photoemission experiments picture the spectrum as of metallic arcs separated from each other by regions with large energy gaps. We solved the kinetic equation in such model rigorously. The Fermi arcs carriers contribute to FL resistivity, if scattering between the opposite nodal points admits the Umkl…
The formula frequently used to describe the c-axis infrared response of the coupled electron-phonon system of bilayer cuprate superconductors and providing important insights into the physics of these materials has been originally obtained at the level of the phenomenological multilayer model. Here we derive it using diagrammatic perturbation theory.
Extending our previous studies we present results for the doping-, momentum-, frequency-, and temperature- dependence of the kink-like change of the quasiparticle velocity resulting from the coupling to spin fluctuations. In the nodal direction a kink is found in both the normal and superconducting state while in the antinodal direction a kink occurs only below $T_c$ due to the opening of the superconducting gap. A pronounced kink is obtained only for hole-doped, but not for electron-doped cuprates and is characteristically different from what is expected due to electron-phonon interaction. We…
An intrinsic physical mechanism, based on the doping evolution of the Fermi surface (FS), is explored to reconcile the contradictory experimental results on the superconducting (SC) pairing symmetry in electron-doped cuprates. It is argued that the FS pocket around $(π/2,π/2)$ has not yet formed until doping reaches about the optimal value. Therefore, in the underdoped regime, even if the SC order parameter is $d$ wave which vanishes along the line $k_x=k_y$, the quasiparticle excitation gap is still finite and looks s-wave-like due to the absence of the FS across that line. This makes it poss…
We discuss the magnetic excitations of well-ordered stripe and checkerboard phases, including the high energy magnetic excitations of recent interest and possible connections to the "resonance peak" in cuprate superconductors. Using a suitably parametrized Heisenberg model and spin wave theory, we study a variety of magnetically ordered configurations, including vertical and diagonal site- and bond-centered stripes and simple checkerboards. We calculate the expected neutron scattering intensities as a function of energy and momentum. At zero frequency, the satellite peaks of even square-wave s…
Dynamical information on spin degrees of freedom of proteins or solids can be obtained by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR). A technique with similar versatility for charge degrees of freedom and their ultrafast correlations could move forward the understanding of systems like unconventional superconductors. By perturbing the superconducting state in a high-Tc cuprate using a femtosecond laser pulse, we generate coherent oscillations of the Cooper pair condensate which can be described by an NMR/ESR formalism. The oscillations are detected by transient broad-ba…
Motivated by recent photoemission experiments on cuprates, the low-lying excitations of a strongly correlated superconducting state are studied numerically. It is observed that along the nodal direction these low-lying one-particle excitations show a linear momentum dependence for a wide range of excitation energies and, thus, they do not present a kink-like structure. The nodal Fermi velocity $v_{\rm F}$, as well as other observables, are systematically evaluated directly from the calculated dispersions, and they are found to compare well with experiments. It is argued that the parameter depe…
The anomalous high-energy dispersion of the conductance band in the high-Tc superconductor Pb-Bi2212 has been extensively mapped by angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) as a function of excitation energy in the range from 34 to 116 eV. Two distinctive types of dispersion behavior are observed around 0.6 eV binding energy, which alternate as a function of photon energy. The continuous transitions observed between the two kinds of behavior near 50, 70, and 90 eV photon energies allow to exclude the possibility that they originate from the interplay between the bonding and antibonding bands. The …
The nature of the pseudogap phase of cuprates remains a major puzzle. Although there are indications that this phase breaks various symmetries, there is no consensus on its fundamental nature. Although Fermi-surface, transport and thermodynamic signatures of the pseudogap phase are reminiscent of a transition into a phase with antiferromagnetic order, there is no evidence for an associated long-range magnetic order. Here we report measurements of the thermal Hall conductivity $κ_{\rm xy}$ in the normal state of four different cuprates (Nd-LSCO, Eu-LSCO, LSCO, and Bi2201) and show that a large …
By means of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the Cu L$_3$ edge, we measured the spin wave dispersion along $\langle$100$\rangle$ and $\langle$110$\rangle$ in the undoped cuprate Ca$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$. The data yields a reliable estimate of the superexchange parameter $J$ = 135 $\pm$ 4 meV using a classical spin-1/2 2D Heisenberg model with nearest-neighbor interactions and including quantum fluctuations. Including further exchange interactions increases the estimate to $J$ = 141 meV. The 40 meV dispersion between the magnetic Brillouin zone boundary points (1/2,\,0) and (1/4,\,1/4) indicat…
We present RIXS data at O K edge from La2-xSrxCuO4 vs. doping between x=0.10 and x=0.22 with attention to the magnetic excitations in the Mid-Infrared region. The sampling done by RIXS is the same as in the undoped cuprates provided the excitation is at the first pre-peak induced by doping. Note that this excitation energy is about 1.5 eV lower than that needed to see bimagnons in the parent compound. This approach allows the study of the upper region of the bimagnon continuum around 450 meV within about one third of the Brilluoin Zone around Γ. The results show the presence of damped bimagnon…
We consider the extended 2D $t-t'-t''-J$ model at zero temperature. Parameters of the model corresponds to doping by holes. Using the low doping effective action we demonstrate that the system can 1) preserve the long range collinear antiferromagnetic order, 2) lead to a spin spiral state (static or dynamic), 3) lead to the phase separation instability. We show that at parameters of the effective action corresponding to the single layer cuprate La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ the spin spiral ground state is realized. We derive properties of magnetic excitations and calculate quantum fluctuations. Quan…
