We theoretically study the effect of uniaxial deformation of ladder-type cuprate superconductors. Model construction based on first principles calculation shows that the rung-to-leg ratio of the nearest neighbor hoppings counterintuitively increases when the lattice is compressed in the longitudinal (leg) direction. This leads to an enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature, which intuitively is expected when compressed in the rung direction. Such a trend is traced back to the on-site hybridization between Cu$4s$ and Cu$d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals, which varies and changes sign upon lattice deformation.
We study the superconductivity in the three-dimensional multiband d-p model, in which a Cu$_2$O$_3$-ladder layer and a CuO$_2$-chain layer are alternately stacked, as a model of the superconducting spin-chain ladder cuprate. $p_z$-Wave-like triplet superconductivity is found to be the most stable, and its dependence on interlayer coupling can explain the superconducting transition temperature dependence on pressure in real superconducting spin-chain ladder cuprates. The superconductivity may be enhanced if hole transfer from the chain layer to the ladder layer can be promoted beyond the typica…
We construct a 2-leg ladder model of an Fe-pnictide superconductor and discuss its properties and relationship with the familiar 2-leg cuprate model. Our results suggest that the underlying pairing mechanism for the Fe-pnictide superconductors is similar to that for the cuprates.
Within the t-J ladder model, superconductivity with a modified d-wave symmetry in doped two-leg ladder cuprates is investigated based on the kinetic energy driven superconducting mechanism. It is shown that the spin-liquid ground-state at the half-filling evolves into the superconducting ground-state upon doping. In analogy to the doping dependence of the superconducting transition temperature in the planar cuprate superconductors, the superconducting transition temperature in doped two-leg ladder cuprates increases with increasing doping in the underdoped regime, and reaches a maximum in the …
Pressure-induced superconductivity was studied for a spin-ladder cuprate Sr$_2$Ca$_{12}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) under pressures up to the optimal pressure 3.8 GPa. Pressure application leads to a transitional change from a spin-gapped state to a Fermi-liquid state at temperatures higher than $T_c$. The relaxation rate $1/T_1$ shows activated-type behavior at an onset pressure, whereas Korringa-like behavior becomes predominant at the optimal pressure, suggesting that an increase in the density of states (DOS) at the Fermi energy leads to enhancement of $T_c$. N…
Within the kinetic energy driven superconducting mechanism, the effect of the pressure on superconductivity in doped two-leg ladder cuprates is studied. It is shown that the superconducting transition temperature in doped two-leg ladder cuprate superconductors increases with increasing pressure in the underpressure regime, and reaches a maximum in the optimal pressure, then decreases in the overpressure regime. This domed shape of the pressure dependence of the superconducting transition temperature is similar to that of the pressure dependence of the longitudinal part of the superconducting g…
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…
The ladder compound Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ is of interest both as a quasi-one-dimensional analog of the superconducting cuprates and as a superconductor in its own right when Sr is substituted by Ca. In order to model resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra for this compound, we investigate the simpler SrCu$_{2}$O$_{3}$ system in which the crystal structure contains very similar ladder planes. We approximate the LDA dispersion of SrCu$_{2}$O$_{3}$ by a Cu only two-band tight-binding model. Strong correlation effects are incorporated by assuming an anti-ferromagnetic ground state…
Within the two-leg $t$-J ladder, the spin dynamics of the pressure-induced two-leg ladder cuprate superconductor Sr$_{14-x}$Ca$_{x}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ is studied based on the kinetic energy driven superconducting mechanism. It is shown that in the pressure-induced superconducting state, the incommensurate spin correlation appears in the underpressure regime, while the commensurate spin fluctuation emerges in the optimal pressure and overpressure regimes. In particular, the spin-lattice relaxation time is dominated by a temperature linear dependence term at low temperature followed by a peak dev…
Correlated-electron theories of superconductivity in layered cuprates often start from the premise of a gapped spin-liquid phase proximate to the superconducting state. This assumption is justified based on analytical and numerical demonstrations of a superconducting Luther-Emery phase in the doped 2-leg one-band Hubbard ladder, and the perceived analogy between coupled ladders and the two dimensional CuO2 layer. We demonstrate from accurate density matrix renormalization group studies the absence of the superconducting Luther-Emery phase in the doped 2-leg three-band ladder consisting of both…
An unified picture for the Raman response of magnetic excitations in cuprate spin-ladder compounds is obtained by comparing calculated two-triplon Raman line-shapes with those of the prototypical compounds SrCu2O3 (Sr123), Sr14Cu24O41 (Sr14), and La6Ca8Cu24O41 (La6Ca8). The theoretical model for the two-leg ladder contains Heisenberg exchange couplings J_parallel and J_perp plus an additional four-spin interaction J_cyc. Within this model Sr123 and Sr14 can be described by x:=J_parallel/J_perp=1.5, x_cyc:=J_cyc/J_perp=0.2, J_perp^Sr123=1130 cm^-1 and J_perp^Sr14=1080 cm^-1. The couplings found…
The enigmatic scaling behaviour of the normal state properties of the high Tc cuprates has been explained by assuming that a crossover from the two- dimensional Heisenberg (2D-H) to the one-dimensional spin ladder (1D-SL) regime takes place at temperature T=T*. For T<T* stripe formation results in the quantum 1D transport with the characteristic inelastic length L_phi being fully controlled by the magnetic correlation length xi_m of the even-chain SL, whereas for T> T* the 2D quantum transport is realized with L_ϕgoverned by the 2D-H correlations L_phi=xi_m=exp(J/T)$. Therefore, the pseudogap …
According to the celebrated Onsagar-Lifshitz paradigm, the observation of Shubnikov de-Haas and de-Haas van Alphen (SdHvA) oscillations is an indication of the presence of `closed' orbit Fermi surface in the bulk. We present a real-space based calculation of SdHvA oscillations in generalized quasi-one-dimensional lattices by relaxing the quasi-classical approximations embedded in this decades old Onsagar-Lifshitz paradigm. We find that sizable quantum oscillation can arise from `open' Fermi surfaces as long as cyclotron orbits can form in real-space with finite, but not necessarily equal, elec…
A light-induced charge order mode in a metastable cuprate ladder
Harvard University(哈佛大学);Emory University(埃默里大学);Brookhaven National Laboratory(布鲁克海文国家实验室);University of Notre Dame(圣母大学);Paul Scherrer Institute(保罗谢勒研究所)
Exact Diagonalization calculations are presented for the t-J model in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. Results for 2xL ladders (L=8,10,12) and 4x4 square clusters with 1 and 2 holes indicate that the diamagnetic response to a perpendicular magnetic field tends to induce a spin liquid state in the spin background. The zero-field spin liquid state of a two-leg ladder is reinforced by the magnetic field: a considerable increase of rung antiferromagnetic correlations is observed for J/t up to 0.6, for 1 and 2 holes. Pair-breaking is also clearly observed in the ladders and seems to be ass…
Half-filled two-leg Hubbard ladders have spin-gapped short-range antiferromagnetic correlations while three-leg ladders have power law antoferromagnetic correlations, and both systems have d_{x^2-y^2}-power law pairing correlations when they are doped. Thus these ladders exhibit some of the phenomenology seen in the layered cuprates. Here we report results for half-filled frustrated Hubbard ladders, based upon ladder segments taken from a tight-binding model of kappa-BEDT-TTF. Although these ladders are half-filled, varying the degree of frustration can drive them across an insulator-metal tra…
We report the first measurement of collective charge modes of insulating Sr14Cu24O41 using inelastic resonant x-ray scattering over the complete Brillouin zone. Our results show that the intense excitation modes at the charge gap edge predominantly originate from the ladder-containing planar substructures. The observed ladder modes (E vs. Q) are found to be dispersive for momentum transfers along the "legs" but nearly localized along the "rungs". Dispersion and peakwidth characteristics are similar to the charge spectrum of 1D Mott insulators, and we show that our results can be understood in …
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.
The formation of domains comprising alternating 'hole rich' and 'hole poor' ladders recently observed by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy by Kohsaka et al., on lightly hole doped cuprates, is interpreted in terms of an attractive mechanism which favors the presence of doped holes on Cu sites located each on one side of an oxygen atom. This mechanism leads to a geometrical pattern of alternating hole-rich and hole-poor ladders with a periodicity equal to 4 times the lattice spacing in the CuO plane, as observed experimentally. To cite this article: G. Deutscher, P.-G. de Gennes, C. R. Physique 8 (…
Symmetry-protected electronic metastability in an optically driven cuprate ladder
Harvard University(哈佛大学);Emory University(埃默里大学);The Chinese University of Hong Kong(香港中文大学);Diamond Light Source(钻石光源);Brookhaven National Laboratory(布鲁克海文国家实验室);Paul Scherrer Institute(保罗谢尔研究所);Pohang University of Science and Technology(韩国科学技术院);Max Planck POSTECH/Korea Research Initiative, Center for Complex Phase Materials(马普POSTECH/韩国研究倡议复杂相材料中心)
We probed spin-spin correlations up to 725 K with 63Cu NQR in the S= 1/2 three-leg ladder Sr2Cu3O5. We present experimental evidence that below 300 K, weak inter-ladder coupling causes dimensional crossover of the spin-spin correlation length ξfrom quasi-1d (ξ~ 1/T) to anisotropic 2d regime (ξ\~ exp[2πρ_{s}/T], where 2πρ_{s} = 290 +/- 30 K is the effective spin stiffness). This is the first experimental verification of the renormalized classical behavior of the anisotropic non-linear sigma model in 2d, which has been recently proposed for the striped phase in high T_{c} cuprates.
The tendencies to phase-separation and stripe formation of the t-J model on planes and four-leg ladders have been here reexamined including hole hopping terms t', t'' beyond nearest-neighbor sites. The motivation for this study is the growing evidence that such terms are needed for a quantitative description of the cuprates. Using a variety of computational techniques it is concluded that the stripe tendencies considerably weaken when experimentally realistic t'<0, t''>0 for hole-doped cuprates are considered. However, a small t'>0 actually enhances the stripe formation.
The spin dynamics of a doped 2-leg spin ladder is investigated by numerical techniques. We show that a hole pair-magnon boundstate evolves at finite hole doping into a sharp magnetic excitation below the two-particle continuum. This is supported by a field theory argument based on a SO(6)-symmetric ladder. Similarities and differences with the resonant mode of the high-T$_c$ cuprates are discussed.
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…
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…
LaCuO_2.5 is a system of coupled, two-chain, cuprate ladders which may be doped systematically by Sr substitution. Motivated by the recent synthesis of single crystals, we investigate theoretically the possibility of superconductivity in this compound. We use a model of spin fluctuation-mediated superconductivity, where the pairing potential is strongly peaked at πin the ladder direction. We solve the coupled gap equations on the bonding and antibonding ladder bands to find superconducting solutions across the range of doping, and discuss their relevance to the real material.
The Raman response in the antiferromagnetic 2-leg S=1/2 Heisenberg ladder is calculated for various couplings by continuous unitary transformations. For leg couplings above 80% of the rung coupling a characteristic 2-peak structure occurs with a point of zero intensity within the continuum. Experimental data for CaV_2O_5 and La_yCa_(14-y)Cu_24O_41 are analyzed and the coupling constants are determined. Evidence is found that the Heisenberg model is not sufficient to describe cuprate ladders. We argue that a cyclic exchange term is the appropriate extension.
Pressure-induced superconductivity in a spin-ladder cuprate Sr$_2$Ca$_{12}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ has not been studied on a microscopic level so far although the superconductivity was already discovered in 1996. We have improved high-pressure technique with using a large high-quality crystal, and succeeded in studying the superconductivity using $^{63}$Cu nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). We found that anomalous metallic state reflecting the spin-ladder structure is realized and the superconductivity possesses a s-wavelike character in the meaning that a finite gap exists in the quasi-particle exci…
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 hole-doped antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 two-leg ladder is an important model system for the high-$T_c$ superconductors based on cuprates. Using the technique of self-similar continuous unitary transformations we derive effective Hamiltonians for the charge motion in these ladders. The key advantage of this technique is that it provides effective models explicitly in the thermodynamic limit. A real space restriction of the generator of the transformation allows us to explore the experimentally relevant parameter space. From the effective Hamiltonians we calculate the dispersions for single ho…
Raman measurements in the 1.5 - 20 cm-1 energy range were performed on single crystals of Sr_{14-x}Ca_xCu_{24}O_{41}. A quasielastic scattering peak (QEP) which softens with cooling is observed in the polarization parallel to the ladder direction for samples with x = 0, 8 and 12. The QEP is a Raman fingerprint of pinned collective density wave excitations screened by uncondensed carriers. Our results suggest that transport in metallic samples, which is similar to transport in underdoped high-T_c cuprates, is driven by a collective electronic response.
The ground state of the t-t'-J ladder with four legs favors a striped charge distribution for the parameters corresponding to hole-doped cuprate superconductors. We investigate the dynamical spin and charge structure factors of the model by using the dynamical density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) and clarify the influence of the stripe on the structure factors. The dynamical charge structure factor along the momentum direction from q=(0,0) to (pi,0) clearly shows low-energy excitations corresponding to the stripe order in hole doping. On the other hand, the stripe order weakens in elect…
The nature of the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism in the cuprates remains one of the fundamental unsolved problems in high temperature superconductivity. Whether and how these two phenomena are interdependent is perhaps most sharply seen in the stripe phases of various copper-oxide materials. These phases, involving a mixture of spin and charge density waves, do not yet admit a complete, overarching theoretical treatment. However aspects of this problem can be analyzed. In this work, we focus on the magnetic side of stripe physics. To this end, we study a simple model of a st…
We introduce a generic Froehlich-Coulomb model of the oxides, which also includes infinite on-site (Hubbard) repulsion, and describe a simple analytical method of solving the multi-polaron problem in complex lattice structures. Two particular lattices, a zig-zag ladder and a perovskite layer, are studied. We find that depending on the relative strength of the Froehlich and Coulomb interactions these systems are either polaronic Fermi (or Luttinger)-liquids, bipolaronic superconductors, or charge segregated insulators. In the superconducting phase the carriers are superlight mobile bipolarons. …
We present a self-consistent approach to deal with the pairing-fluctuation effects in quasi-two-dimensional superconducting systems. Besides the Cooper pairs in the Bose-Einstein condensate, there are pairs occupying the excited states, which results in the predominant fluctuations. The low-lying excited states are the collective modes. On the basis of ladder-diagram approximation, we treat the single particles and the pairs on an equal-footing manner. The Green's function of single particles is obtained as an analytic solution to a cubic equation. The bosonic degrees of freedom are relevant t…
A recently discovered high-Tc cuprate superconductor Ba2CuO$_{4-δ}$ exhibits exceptional Jahn-Teller distortion, wherein the CuO6 octahedrons are compressed along the c axis. As a consequence, the O vacancies prefer to reside in the CuO2 plane, but the exact structure is not known. By combining first-principles total energy calculation with the automated structure inversion method, the effective cluster interactions of O vacancies are mapped out. Around $δ$=0.8, where the 73K superconductivity was observed experimentally, we predict that the ordered O vacancies slice the CuO2 plane into not on…
We study the magnetic and charge dynamical response of a Hubbard model in a two-leg ladder geometry using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method and the random phase approximation within the fluctuation-exchange approximation (RPA+FLEX). Our calculations reveal that RPA+FLEX can capture the main features of the magnetic response from weak up to intermediate Hubbard repulsion for doped ladders, when compared with the numerically exact DMRG results. However, while at weak Hubbard repulsion both the spin and charge spectra can be understood in terms of weakly-interacting electron-…
We investigate the physical consequences of orbital current patterns (OCP) in doped two-leg Cu-O Hubbard ladders. The internal symmetry of the pattern, in the case of the ladder structure, differs slightly from that suggested so far for cuprates. We focus on this OCP and look for measurable signatures of its existence. We compute the magnetic field produced by the OCP at each lattice site, and estimate its value in view of a possible experimental detection. Using a renormalization group (RG) analysis, we determine the changes that are caused by the SU(2) spin-rotational symmetry breaking which…
We investigate the optical conductivity of half-filled N-leg Hubbard ladders far into the ``deconfinement'' limit (i.e., weak Hubbard interaction and relatively strong interchain hopping). The N-leg Hubbard ladder is equivalent to an N-band model with velocities obeying $v_1=v_N<v_2=v_{N-1}<...$. When N is not too large $(N=3,4...)$, the band pairs $(i,N+1-i)$ successively flow to the D-Mott state leading to a cascade of charge and spin gaps [U. Ledermann, K. Le Hur, and T. M. Rice, Phys. Rev. B {\bf{62}}, 16383 (2000)], and to the progressive closing of the two-dimensional (2D) Fermi surface …
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…
Microscopic mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity revealed by ab initio studies on hole-doped multilayer cuprates HgBa$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_8$ under pressure
Sophia University(上智大学);The University of Tokyo(东京大学)
The ground state of a hole-doped t-t'-J ladder with four legs favors a striped charge distribution. Spin excitation from the striped ground state is known to exhibit incommensurate spin excitation near q=(pi,pi) along the leg direction (qx direction). However, an outward dispersion from the incommensurate position toward q=(0,pi) is strong in intensity, inconsistent with inelastic neutron scattering (INS) experiment in hole-doped cuprates. Motivated by this inconsistency, we use the t-t'-J model with m x n=96 lattice sites by changing lattice geometry from four-leg (24x4) to rectangle (12x8) s…