We perform a numerical simulation of a three-band Hubbard model with two CuO$_2$ planes and a single CuO chain layer for YBCO cuprates. The spin-fluctuation mediated pairing interaction is computed within the multiband random-phase approximation, and its pairing eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are solved as a function of chain state filling factor $n_c$. We find that for the intrinsic value of $n_c$ in YBCO samples, one obtains the usual $d$-wave pairing symmetry. However, if we dope the chain layers with holes, while keeping the plane states doping fixed, the leading pairing symmetry solution becomes an unconventional $f$-wave symmetry. The mechanism behind the $f$-wave pairing is the competition between the plane states antiferromagnetic nesting and chain states' uniaxial nesting. We also find that the pairing strength is strongly augmented when the flat band bottom of the chain state passes the Fermi level for a fixed plane states doping. The $f$-wave pairing symmetry can be realized in YBCO cuprates in future experiments where the self-doping mechanism between the chain and plane states can be minimized so that only chain state can be selectively hole doped.
The cuprate superconductor YBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$, in comparison with most other cuprates, has a stable stoichiometry, is largely free of defects and may be regarded as the canonical underdoped cuprate, displaying marked pseudogap behaviour and an associated distinct weakening of superconducting properties. This cuprate `pseudogap' manifests as a partial gap in the electronic density of states at the Fermi level and is observed in most spectroscopic properties. After several decades of intensive study it is widely believed that the pseudogap closes, mean-field like, near a characteristic temperatu…
We use magnetic force microscopy to both image and manipulate individual vortex lines threading single crystalline YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.4}$, a layered superconductor. We find that when we pull the top of a pinned vortex, it may not tilt smoothly. Sometimes, we observe a vortex to break into discrete segments that can be described as short stacks of pancake vortices, similar to the "kinked" structure proposed by Benkraouda and Clem. Quantitative analysis gives an estimate of the pinning force and the coupling between the stacks. Our measurements highlight the discrete nature of stacks of pancake …
When the $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave pairing is suppressed by Zn-doping in $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-δ}$ some of the Andreev reflection spectra were found to be similar to the s-wave spectra of conventional superconductors. The energy gap is rather reproducible (2.3-3.0meV). It is suppressed by low magnetic field ($H_C^{PC}=120-270mT$) in great contrast to the d-wave spectra ($H_C^{PC}>3T$) with the similar order of the gap value. We suppose that the s-wave pairing occurs near the Zn-impurities.
Cuprate superconductors still hold many open questions, in particular concerning their normal state properties, including the role of charge ordering. Nuclear magnetic resonance on $^{63,65}$Cu and $^{17}$O in the CuO$_2$ plane is a very sensitive bulk probe of charge variations, but not properly understood. Since early NMR, the oxygen satellite line splittings in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+y}$ were attributed to the orthorhombic distortion, while they could also be due to charge ordering. We employ high pressure NMR on YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.9}$ hoping that charge order would respond to pressure differen…
We explore the combined pressure and finite-size effects on the in-plane penetration depth λ_{ab} in YBa_2Cu_4O_8. Even though this cuprate is stoichiometric the finite-size scaling analysis of λ_{ab}^{-2}(T) uncovers the granular nature and reveals domains with nanoscale size L_{c} along the c-axis. L_{c} ranges from 33.2 Angstrom to 28.9 Angstrom at pressures from 0.5 to 11.5 kbar. These observations raise serious doubts on the existence of a phase coherent macroscopic superconducting state in cuprate superconductors.
Recent inelastic neutron scattering measurements found that the spin susceptibility of detwinned and highly ordered ortho-II YBa_2Cu_3O_{6.5} exhibits, in both the normal and superconducting states, one-dimensional incommensurate modulations at low energies which were interpreted as a signature of dynamic stripes. We propose an alternative model based on quasiparticle transitions between the arcs of a truncated Fermi surface. Such transitions are resonantly enhanced by scattering to the triplet spin resonance. We show that the anisotropy in the experimental spin response is consistent with thi…
The de Haas-van Alphen effect was observed in the underdoped cuprate YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.5}$ via a torque technique in pulsed magnetic fields up to 59 T. Above an irreversibility field of $\sim$30 T, the magnetization exhibits clear quantum oscillations with a single frequency of 540 T and a cyclotron mass of 1.76 times the free electron mass, in excellent agreement with previously observed Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. The oscillations obey the standard Lifshitz-Kosevich formula of Fermi-liquid theory. This thermodynamic observation of quantum oscillations confirms the existence of a well-de…
We have grown and characterized 30 nm thick YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-δ}$ (YBCO) films, deposited by pulsed laser deposition on both MgO (110) and SrTiO$_3$ (001) substrates, which induce opposite strain to the superconducting layer. By carefully tuning the in-situ post-annealing oxygen pressure, we achieved, in a reproducible way, films at different oxygen doping, spanning from the slightly overdoped down to the strongly underdoped region of the phase diagram. The transport properties of the films, investigated through resistance versus temperature measurements, are in perfect qualitative agreement …
We use 89Y NMR in $YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{6+y}$ in order to evaluate with high sensitivity the distribution of hole content p in the CuO2 planes. For y=1 and y=0.6, this hole doping distribution is found narrow with a full width at half maximum smaller than Delta p=0.025. This rules out any large static phase separation between underdoped and optimally doped regions in contrast with the one observed by STM in Bi2212 and by NQR in LaSrCuO. This establishes that static electronic phase separation is not a generic feature of the cuprates.
The optical conductivity sigma (omega) of undoped YBa2Cu3O6 is studied in detail in the mid-infrared range. Substitutions on all but the Ba site are used to identify the prominent absorption processes at 2800 and 3800 cm^-1. Experimental evidence for bimagnon-plus-phonon absorption is collected. A more critical analysis of the lineshape and the spectral weight reveals the limits of this approach. Although phonon-2-magnon multiple scattering seems to reproduce the lineshape, the necessary coupling is unrealistically large. The strong increase of high frequency spectral weight with increasing te…
The effect of zinc substitution on the local electronic structure of several cuprates is investigated using first-principles cluster calculations. Clusters comprising 5, 9, and 13 copper atoms in the cuprate plane of La$_2$CuO$_4$, YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$, and YBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$ are used. Spin polarized calculations with different multiplicities in the framework of density functional theory enable a detailed study of the changes in the charge and spin density distribution induced by Zn substitution. Furthermore, doping with charge carriers in the above materials is simulated and the resulting chang…
Phase-sensitive tests of pairing symmetry have provided strong evidence for predominantly d-wave pairing symmetry in both hole- and electron-doped high-Tc cuprate superconductors. Temperature dependent measurements in YBCO indicate that the d-wave pairing dominates, with little if any imaginary component, at all temperatures from 0.5K through Tc. In this article we review some of this evidence and discuss the implications of the universal d-wave pairing symmetry in the cuprates.
Close to a zero temperature transition between ordered and disordered electronic phases, quantum fluctuations can lead to a strong enhancement of the electron mass and to the emergence of competing phases such as superconductivity. A correlation between the existence of such a quantum phase transition and superconductivity is quite well established in some heavy fermion and iron-based superconductors and there have been suggestions that high temperature superconductivity in the copper oxide materials (cuprates) may also be driven by the same mechanism. Close to optimal doping, where the superc…
To clarify the order parameter symmetry of cuprates, the magnetic penetration depth $λ$ was measured along the crystallographic directions $a$, $b$, and $c$ in single crystals of YBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$ via muon spin rotation. This method is direct, bulk sensitive, and unambiguous. The temperature dependences of $λ_a^{-2}$ and $λ_b^{-2}$ exhibit an inflection point at low temperatures as is typical for two-gap superconductivity (TGS) with $s+d-$wave character in the planes. Perpendicular to the planes a pure s-wave gap is observed thereby highlighting the important role of c-axis effects. We conclu…
The electric hyperfine interaction observable in atomic spectroscopy for O and Cu ions in various configurations is used to analyze the quadrupole splitting of O and Cu nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in La2-xSrxCuO4 and YBa2Cu3O6+y and to determine the hole densities at both sites as a function of doping. It is found that in La2-xSrxCuO4 all doped holes (x) reside in the Cu-O plane but almost exclusively at O. For YBa2Cu3O6+y and y<0.6 doped holes are found at planar Cu as well as O. For y>0.6 further doping increases the hole content only for planar O. The phase diagram based on NMR data is…
One of the most striking universal properties of the high-transition-temperature (high-$T_c$) superconductors is that they are all derived from the hole-doping of their insulating antiferromagnetic (AF) parent compounds. From the outset, the intimate relationship between magnetism and superconductivity in these copper-oxides has intrigued researchers. Evidence for this link comes from neutron scattering experiments that show the unambiguous presence of short-range AF correlations (excitations) in cuprate superconductors. Even so, the role of such excitations in the pairing mechanism and superc…
Nematicity has emerged as a key feature of cuprate superconductors, but its link to other fundamental properties such as superconductivity, charge order and the pseudogap remains unclear. Here we use measurements of transport anisotropy in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_y$ to distinguish two types of nematicity. The first is associated with short-range charge-density-wave modulations in a doping region near $p = 0.12$. It is detected in the Nernst coefficient, but not in the resistivity. The second type prevails at lower doping, where there are spin modulations but no charge modulations. In this case, the on…
The photon energy dependence of optical Cooper pair breaking rate (CPBR) is studied for compressibly strained La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 (LSCO) films and YBa2Cu2.92Zn0.08O7-delta (YBCZO) thin films, and compared to that in YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO). Unlike in the case of YBCO, the CPBR for LSCO does not show obvious photon energy dependence. In YBCZO the CPBR shows strong photon energy dependence similar to YBCO, but with a red shift in the peak position. Analysis of these results strongly favours a physical picture based on electronic phase separation in high Tc superconductivity.
Recently, a strongly enhanced xy anisotropy of magnetic excitations was observed in YBa_2Cu_3O_y (YBCO_y) with y=6.45 and Tc=35 K [Science 319, 597 (2008)]. Unlike the observation in YBCO_6.6 and YBCO_6.85, the anisotropy grows to be pronounced at lower temperature and at lower energy, and is not suppressed by the onset of superconductivity. We propose that the effect of singlet pairing is substantially reduced in YBCO_6.45. This reduction concomitantly enhances an order competing with singlet pairing, a strong tendency of the so-called d-wave Pomeranchuk instability, leading to the magnetic e…
All underdoped high-temperature cuprate superconductors appear to exhibit charge density wave (CDW) order, but both the underlying symmetry breaking and the origin of the CDW remain unclear. We use X-ray diffraction to determine the microscopic structure of the CDW in an archetypical cuprate YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.54}$ at its superconducting transition temperature Tc ~ 60 K. We find that the CDWs present in this material break the mirror symmetry of the CuO2 bilayers. The ionic displacements in a CDW have two components: one perpendicular to the CuO$_2$ planes, and another parallel to these planes…
We report on a direct test of pairing fluctuations in the pseudogap regime of underdoped superconducting cuprates using a Josephson junction. In this experiment, the coupling between a rigid superconducting pair field and pairing fluctuations produces a strong specific signature in the current-voltage characteristics. Our results show that fluctuations survive only close to Tc (T-Tc<15K) and therefore cannot be responsible for the opening of the pseudogap at high temperature.
The vortex transport entropy in the mixed state of the cuprate superconductors YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-δ}$ and Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+x}$ at the maximum Nernst or Ettingshausen signal below $T_c$ is discussed. The vortex transport entropy per CuO$_2$ double layer in the cuprate epitaxial films is found to be close to the Boltzmann constant.
High-Tc superconductivity in layered cuprates is described in a BCS-BEC formalism with linearly-dispersive s- and d-wave Cooper pairs moving in quasi-2D finite-width layers about the CuO_2 planes. This yields a closed formula for Tc determined by the layer width, the Debye frequency, the pairing energy, and the in-plane penetration depth. The new formula reasonably reproduces empirical values of superconducting Tc's for seven different compounds among the LSCO, YBCO, BSCCO and TBCCO layered cuprates.
Within the spin-fermion model for cuprate superconductors, the influence of the intersite Coulomb interactions $V_2$ and $V_2'$ between holes located at the next-nearest-neighbor oxygen ions of CuO$_2$ plane on the implementation of the d_{x^2-y^2}-wave pairing is studied. It is shown that d-wave pairing can be suppressed only for unphysically large values of $V_2$ and $V_2'$.
In the cuprate superconductor $YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x}$, hole doping in the $CuO_2$ layers is controlled by both oxygen content and the degree of oxygen-ordering. At the composition $\rm YBa_2Cu_3O_{6.35}$, the ordering can occur at room temperature, thereby tuning the hole doping so that the superconducting critical temperature gradually rises from zero to 20 K. Here we exploit this to study the c-axis penetration depth as a function of temperature and doping. The temperature dependence shows the d-wave superconductor surviving to very low doping, with no sign of another ordered phase interfering wi…
The properties of the phonon-induced interaction between electrons are studied using the local density approximation (LDA). Restricting the electron momenta to the Fermi surface we find generally that this interaction has a pronounced peak for large momentum transfers and that the interband contributions between bonding and antibonding band are of the same magnitude as the intraband ones. Results are given for various symmetry averages of this interaction over the Fermi surface. In particular, we find that the dimensionless coupling constant in the d-wave channel $λ^d$, relevant for supercondu…
We study the normal state and pairing instability in electron-doped cuprates near optimal doping. We show that the fermionic self-energy has a non-Fermi liquid form leading to peculiar frequency dependencies of the conductivity and the Raman response. We solve the pairing problem and demonstrate that T_c is determined by the curvature of the Fermi surface, and the pairing gap Δ(k,ω) is strongly non-monotonic along the Fermi surface. The normal state frequency dependencies, the value of T_c\sim10K and the k-dependence of the gap agree with the experiment.
We have analyzed scanning tunneling spectra of two electron-doped cuprates Pr0.88LaCe0.12CuO4 (Tc = 21 K and 24 K) and compared them with tunneling spectrum of hole-doped La1.84Sr0.16CuO4 and effective electron-boson spectral function of hole-doped La1.97Sr0.03CuO4 (extracted from angle-resolved photoemission spectrum). We have also analyzed tunneling spectra and angle-resolved photoemission spectra for hole-doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8. These results unambiguously rule out magnetic pairing mechanism in both electron- and hole-doped cuprates and support polaronic/bipolaronic superconductivity in hole-d…
We measure magnetic quantum oscillations in the underdoped cuprates YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$ with $x=0.61$, 0.69, using fields of up to 85 T. The quantum-oscillation frequencies and effective masses obtained suggest that the Fermi energy in the cuprates has a maximum at $p\approx 0.11-0.12$. On either side, the effective mass may diverge, possibly due to phase transitions associated with the T=0 limit of the metal-insulator crossover (low-$p$ side), and the postulated topological transition from small to large Fermi surface close to optimal doping (high $p$ side).
In cuprates superconductors (as polycrystal and single crystal samples) unusual hysteretic temperature behavior of elastic properties is frequently observed. In this work from the uniform point of view detailed analysis this abnormal temperature behavior of elastic properties is given. It is shown that the hysteretic temperature dependencies of elastic properties of YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-δ}$ crystal are strongly anisotropic and are connected to hysteretic behavior of the $C_{3333}$ modulus while the $C_{1111}$ and $C_{2222}$ moduli have no such dependence. The analysis of the elastic constant ten…
We propose a possible scenario for the new metallic conductivity of underdoped and optimally doped cuprates. Charge carriers are assumed to be large polarons which form a Fermi-liquid and Cooper-like pairs below a crossover tempurature $T^{\ast}$. We use the Boltzmann equation to calculate the conductivity of self-trapped carriers and the resistivity $ρ$ as a function of temperature and doping for different cuprates. We show that various anomalies in $ρ(T)$ below $T^{\ast}$ are caused by the competing Fermi-liquid and BCS-like precursor pairing effects. Our results for $ρ$ fit well with existi…
This work is based on the double correlated linear aggregations of holes in checkerboard geometry. It is proved that the pairing function symmetry is - d(x*x-y*y), as been observed experimentally. It is also shown that there is a "superconductive spin gap" for the observation of the magnetic incommensurate modulation peaks, in agreement with experiment. In addition, the unperturbed Hamiltonian is reanalyzed and modified.
Both the pairing and the pair-breaking modes lead to similar kinks of the electron dispersion curves in superconductors, and therefore the photoemission spectroscopy can not be straightforwardly applied in search for their pairing glue. If the momentum-dependence of the normal and anomalous self-energy can be neglected, manipulation with the data does allow us to extract the gap function $Δ(ω)$ and therefore also the pairing glue. However, in the superconducting cuprates such procedure may not be justified. In this paper we point out that the pairing glue is more directly visible in the spectr…
Electronic charges introduced in copper-oxide planes generate high-transition temperature superconductivity but, under special circumstances, they can also order into filaments called stripes. Whether an underlying tendency of charges to order is present in all cuprates and whether this has any relationship with superconductivity are, however, two highly controversial issues. In order to uncover underlying electronic orders, magnetic fields strong enough to destabilise superconductivity can be used. Such experiments, including quantum oscillations in YBa2Cu3Oy (a notoriously clean cuprate wher…
We report resistivity measurements in underdoped YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6.6} $and overdoped Tl$_{2}$Ba$_{2}$CuO$_{6+x}$ single crystals in which the concentration of defects in the CuO$_{2}$ planes is controlled by electron irradiation. Low $T$ upturns of the resistivity are observed in both cases for large defect content. In the Tl compound the decrease of conductivity scales as expected from weak localization theory. On the contrary in YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6.6}$ the much larger low T contribution to the resistivity is proportional to the defect content and might then be associated to a Kondo l…
Cooper's one pair problem is investigated for a 2D lattice in the background of both passive and active Fermi sea in a weakly correlated environment. Boson exchange mechanisms involving excitons as well as phonons are invoked for pairing in the s- wave channel. The important quantities calculated are pairing energy and coherence length as functions of bosonic energy, attracted coupling constant and band filling factor. Comparison of our theoretical results with those from experiments on overdoped cuprate superconductors and other type of theoretical calculations show electronic mechanism to be…
The Seebeck coefficient $S$ of the cuprate YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{y}$ was measured in magnetic fields large enough to suppress superconductivity, at hole dopings $p = 0.11$ and $p = 0.12$, for heat currents along the $a$ and $b$ directions of the orthorhombic crystal structure. For both directions, $S/T$ decreases and becomes negative at low temperature, a signature that the Fermi surface undergoes a reconstruction due to broken translational symmetry. Above a clear threshold field, a strong new feature appears in $S_{\rm b}$, for conduction along the $b$ axis only. We attribute this feature to …
A possibility of holon (boson) pair condensation is explored for hole doped high T_c cuprates, by using the U(1) slave-boson representation of the t-J Hamiltonian with the inclusion of hole-hole repulsion. A phase diagram of the hole doped high T_c cuprates is deduced by allowing both the holon pairing and spinon pairing. It is shown that the spin gap size remains nearly unchanged below the holon pair condensation temperature. We find that the s-wave holon pairing under the condition of d-wave singlet pairing is preferred, thus allowing d-wave hole pairing.
Using numerical diagonalization of a 4x4 cluster, we calculate on-site s, extended s and d pairing correlation functions (PCF) in an effective generalized Hubbard model for the cuprates, with nearest-neighbor correlated hopping and next nearest-neighbor hopping t'. The vertex contributions (VC) to the PCF are significantly enhanced, relative to the t-t'-U model. The behavior of the PCF and their VC, and signatures of anomalous flux quantization, indicate superconductivity in the d-wave channel for moderate doping and in the s-wave channel for high doping and small U.
Compelling efforts to improve the critical temperature ($T_{c}$) of superconductors have been made through high-pressure application. Understanding the underlying mechanism behind such improvements is critically important, however, much remains unclear. Here we studied ortho-III YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6.73}$ (YBCO) using x-ray scattering under hydrostatic-pressure (HP) up to ~6.0 GPa. We found the reinforced oxygen order (OO) of YBCO under HP, revealing an oxygen rearrangement in the Cu-O layer, which evidently shows the charge transfer phenomenon between the CuO$_{2}$ plane and Cu-O layer. Conc…
We have calculated the tunneling conductance of a superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction based on the polaron-bipolaron theory of superconductivity. The predicted incoherent hump features are in quantitative agreement with tunneling spectra of optimally doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+y and Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+y. We further show that angle-resolved photoemission spectra of underdoped cuprates are consistent with the Bose-Einstein condensation of inter-site bipolarons and that the superconducting gap symmetry is d-wave, which is determined by the anomalous kinetic process rather than by the pairing i…
We present phase-sensitive evidence that the electron-doped cuprates Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4-y (NCCO) and Pr1.85Ce0.15CuO4-y (PCCO) have d-wave pairing symmetry. This evidence was obtained by observing the half-flux quantum effect, using a scanning SQUID microscope, in c-axis oriented films of NCCO or PCCO epitaxially grown on tricrystal [100] SrTiO3 substrates designed to be frustrated for a d(x2-y2) order parameter. Samples with two other configurations, designed to b unfrustrated for a d-wave superconductor, do not show the half-flux quantum effect.
We present a simple theoretical explanation for a transition from d-wave to another superconducting pairing observed in the electron-doped cuprates. The d_{x^2-y^2} pairing potential Delta, which has the maximal magnitude and opposite signs at the hot spots on the Fermi surface, becomes suppressed with the increase of electron doping, because the hot spots approach the Brillouin zone diagonals, where Delta vanishes. Then, the d_{x^2-y^2} pairing is replaced by either singlet s-wave or triplet p-wave pairing. We argue in favor of the latter and discuss experiments to uncover it.
Experimental studies of the pairing state of cuprate superconductors reveal asymmetric behaviors of the hole-doped (p-type) and electron-doped (n-type) cuprates. The pairing symmetry, pseudogap phenomenon, low-energy spin excitations and the spatial homogeneity of the superconducting order parameter appear to be non-universal among the cuprates, which may be attributed to competing orders. We propose that the non-universal pseudogap and nano-scale variations in the quasiparticle spectra may be the result of a charge nematic (CN) phase stabilized by disorder in highly two-dimensional (2D) p-typ…
We present point contact spectroscopy (PCS) data for junctions between a normal metal and the electron doped cuprate superconductor Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ (PCCO). For the underdoped compositions of this cuprate ($x \sim 0.13$) we observe a peak in the conductance-voltage characteristics of the point contact junctions. The shape and magnitude of this peak suggests the presence of Andreev bound states at the surface of underdoped PCCO which is evidence for a d-wave pairing symmetry. For overdoped PCCO ($x \sim 0.17$) the PCS data does not show any evidence of Andreev bound states at the surface…
The pseudogap (PG) derived from the analysis of the excess conductivity $σ'(T)$ in superlattices and double-layer films of $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-δ}$-$PrBa_2Cu_3O_{7-δ}$(YBCO-PrBCO), prepared by pulsed laser deposition, is studied for the first time. The $σ'(T)$ analysis has been performed within the local-pair (LP) model based on the assumption of the paired fermion (LPs) formation in the cuprate high-$T_c$ superconductors (cuprates) below the representative temperature $T^*\gg T_c$ resulting in the PG opening. Within the model, the temperature dependencies of the PG, $Δ^*(T)$, for the samples with d…
Recent experimental findings show that the pairing interaction in hole-doped cuprates resides in the nodal (FS arcs) region accompanied by the separate antinodal pseudogap. A corresponding multiband model of cuprate superconductivity is developed. It is based on the electronic spectrum evolving with doping and extends authors earlier approaches. The leading pair-transfer interaction is supposed between the itinerant (mainly oxygen) band and a nodal defect (polaron) band created by doping. These components are overlapping. The defect subband created in the antinodal region of the momentum space…
The normal state of optimally doped cuprates is dominated by the "strange metal" phase that shows a linear temperature ($T$) dependence of the resistivity persisting down to the lowest $T$. For underdoped cuprates this behavior is lost below the pseudogap temperature $T^*$, where Charge Density Waves (CDW) together with other intertwined local orders characterize the ground state. Here we show that the $T$-linear resistivity of highly strained, ultrathin and underdoped YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-δ}$ films is restored when the CDW amplitude, detected by Resonant Inelastic X-ray scattering, is suppresse…
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 thermal conductivity $κ$ is calculated for the Abrikosov vortex lattice with d-wave pairing. The Andreev scattering rate arises from the self energy term in Gorkov's integral equation for the corresponding Green's function. The impurity scattering rate is calculated self-consistently from this Green's function in the t-matrix approximation. Neither point-like impurity scattering with a phase shift in the almost unitary limit nor in the Born limit can consistently explain recent zero-field and finite-field measurements of $κ/T$ at low $T$ in ultraclean YBCO. Our theory also applies to the s…
Cooper's formalism for fermionic pairing has been revisited considering upto 3rd neighbour hopping terms, firstly with a Fermi liquid like background on a square lattice keeping in mind the overdopped cuprates. Then the whole scheme is repeated with a Marginal Fermi liquid- like background, taking into account the self energy correction of the mobile electrons to include a more realitic density of states in the calculation. Detailed comparison of our theoretical results with those from experiments strongly supports the Marginal Fermi liquid- like character of the normal phase with exciton medi…
It is widely accepted that: (i) the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data produce evidences for the opening of a d-wave pairing gap in cuprates compounds described at low energies and temperatures by a BCS theory, and (ii) the basic pairing mechanism arises from the antiferromagnetic exchange correlations, but the charge fluctuations associated with double occupancy of a site also play an essential role in doped systems. The simplest model that is consistent with the two statements is the $t$-$U$-$V$-$J$ model. We have shown that the inelastic neutron scattering data on $YBa_2…
Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) studies reveal long-range spatial homogeneity and predominantly $d_{x^2-y^2}$-pairing spectral characteristics in under- and optimally doped $\rm YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-δ}$ superconductors, whereas STS on $\rm YBa_2(Cu_{0.9934}Zn_{0.0026}Mg_{0.004})_3O_{6.9}$ exhibits {\it microscopic} spatial modulations and strong scattering near the Zn or Mg impurity sites, together with global suppression of the pairing potential. In contrast, in overdoped $\rm (Y_{0.7}Ca_{0.3})Ba_2Cu_3O_{7-δ}$, $(d_{x^2-y^2}+s)$-pairing symmetry is found, suggesting significant changes in the …
It has been proposed that the pseudogap state of underdoped cuprate superconductors may be due to a transition to a phase which has circulating currents within each unit cell. Here, we use polarized neutron diffraction to search for the corresponding orbital moments in two samples of underdoped YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$ with doping levels $p=0.104$ and 0.123. In contrast to some other reports using polarized neutrons, but in agreement with nuclear magnetic resonance and muon spin rotation measurements, we find no evidence for the appearance of magnetic order below 300 K. Thus, our experiment sugg…
We consider the effect of non-magnetic impurities on the onset temperature $T^*$ for the $d-$wave pairing in spin-fluctuation scenario for the cuprates. We analyze intermediate coupling regime when the magnetic correlation length $ξ/a >1$ and the dimensionless coupling $u$ is O(1). In the clean limit, $T^* \approx 0.02 v_f/a$ in this parameter range, and weakly depends on $ξ$ and $u$. We found numerically that this universal pairing scale is also quite robust with respect to impurities: the scattering rate $Γ_{cr}$ needed to bring $T^*$ down to zero is about 4 times larger than in weak couplin…
