Microscopic theory of a high Tc cuprate BiSCO based on main pairing channel of electrons in CuO planes due to 40meV lateral vibrations of the apical oxygen atoms in adjacent the SrO ionic insulator layer is proposed. The separation between the vibrating charged atoms and the 2D electron gas creates the forward scattering peak leading in turn to the d-wave pairing within Eliashberg formalism. The phonon mode naturally explain the kink in dispersion relation observed by ARPES and the and effect of the O16 to O18 isotope substitution in the normal state. To describe the pseudogap physics a single band fourfold symmetric Hubbard model, with the hopping parameters t' = - 0.17t and the on site repulsion U = 6t was used. It described the Mott insulator at low doping, while at higher dopping the pseudogap physics (still strongly correlated) can be be approximated by the symmetrized mean field model and with renormalized U incorporating screening. The location of the transition line between the locally antiferromagnetic pseudogap and the paramagnetic overdoped phases and susceptibility (describing spin uctuations coupling to 2DEG) are also obtained within this approximation. The superconducting d-wave gap mainly due to the phonon channel but is assisted by the spin fluctuations (15-20%). The dependence of the gap and Tc on doping and effect of the isotope substitution are obtained and is consistent with experiments.
This Reply to preceding Comment of arXiv:1909.09867 shows why the statements in the Comment are misleading. We point out that our physical picture and theirs are fundamentally different, therefore the claim of using their correlation to include ours shows a very limited physical relevance, which instead may impede the precise understanding of either of the two pictures.
Cu K edge X-ray absorption spectra of overdoped superconducting $YSr_2Cu_{2.75}Mo_{0.25}O_{7.54}$ and $Sr_2CuO_{3.3}$ show a remarkably strong correlation of their superconductivity with the local dynamics of their Cu-Sr and Cu-apical-O pairs. This finding that the entire alkaline earth cation-apical O "dielectric" layer has an active role in the unusual electronic properties of cuprates has not been previously considered and has far reaching implications. We develop this idea of a possible role for the apical oxygen charge dynamics via a soft mode of the Sr by applying Kuramoto's synchronizat…
A study of the in-plane magnetic penetration depth λ_ab in a series of the cuprate superconductors Ca_2-xNa_xCuO_2Cl_2 (Na-CCOC) with Na content x=0.11, 0.12, 0.15, 0.18, and 0.19 is reported. The zero temperature values of λ_ab(0) were obtained by means of the muon-spin rotation technique, as well as from measurements of the intrinsic susceptibility χ^int(0) by using the procedure developed by Kanigel et al. [Phys.Rev.B 71, 224511 (2005)]. λ_ab at T=0K was found to increase with decreasing doping from λ_ab(0)=316(19)nm for the x=0.19 sample to λ_ab(0)=430(26)nm for the x=0.11 one. From a comp…
There is a hot debate on the anomalous behavior of superfluid density $ρ_s$ in overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ films in recent years. The linear drop of $ρ_s$ at low temperatures implies the superconductors are clean, but the linear scaling between $ρ_s$ (in the zero temperature limit) and the transition temperature $T_c$ is a hallmark of the dirty limit in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) framework [I. Bozovic et al., Nature 536, 309 (2016)]. This dichotomy motivated exotic theories beyond the standard BCS theory. We show, however, that such a dichotomy can be reconciled naturally by the…
In our recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 137001 (2002)], we proposed that the apical oxygen vacancies act as anisotropic scattering impurities. Within the Born approximation, this leads to a quasi-particle scattering rate that is maximal (zero) in the antinodal (nodal) direction. This unique angular dependence provides a straightforward mechanism for some puzzling experimental results in overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) films regarding the superfluid density $ρ_s$ and optical conductivity $σ_1$. In a recent comment by H. U. Ozdemir et al. [arXiv:2206.01301], the importance of the natu…
Cuprates, a member of high-Tc superconductors, have been on the long-debate on their superconducting mechanism, so that predicting the critical temperature of cuprates still remains elusive. Herein, using machine learning and first principle calculations, we predict the maximum superconducting transition temperature (Tc,max) of hole-doped cuprates and suggest the explicit functional form for Tc,max with the root-mean-square-error of 3.705 K and the coefficient of determination R2 of 0.969. We employed two machine learning models; one is a parametric brute force searching method and another is …
In high Tc superconductors the magnetic and electronic properties are determined by the probability that valence electrons virtually jump from site to site in the CuO2 planes, a mechanism opposed by on-site Coulomb repulsion and favored by hopping integrals. The spatial extent of the latter is related to transport properties, including superconductivity, and to the dispersion relation of spin excitations (magnons). Here, for three antiferromagnetic parent compounds (single-layer Bi2Sr0.99La1.1CuO6+delta, double-layer Nd1.2Ba1.8Cu3O6 and infinite-layer CaCuO2) differing by the number of apical …
The abstract of Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 157001 (2018) claims to "demonstrate, using ab initio computations, a new trend suggesting that the cuprates with stronger out-of-CuO$_{2}$-plane chemical bonding between the apical anion (O, Cl) and apical cation (e.g., La, Hg, Bi, Tl) are generally correlated with higher $T_{c\,\max}$ in experiments". We point out that this trend is included in the long-known [Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 047003 (2001)] correlation of $T_{c\,\max}$ with the hopping range of the electrons at (the most interlayer-bonding sheet of) the Fermi-surface. Contrary to the impression give…
Using a newly developed first-principles Wannier-states approach that takes into account large on-site Coulomb repulsion, we derive the effective low-energy interacting Hamiltonians for several prototypical high-$T_c$ superconducting cuprates. The material dependence is found to originate primarily from the different energy of the apical atom $p_z$ state. Specifically, the general properties of the low-energy hole state, namely the Zhang-Rice singlet, are significantly modified by a triplet state associated with this $p_z$ state, via additional intra-sublattice hoppings, nearest-neighbor "supe…
Recently, scanning tunneling microscopy on Bi-2212 cuprate superconductor has revealed a spatial variation of the energy gap that is directly correlated with a modulation of the apical oxygen position. We identify two mechanisms by which out-of-plane oxygens can modulate the pairing interaction within the CuO_2 layer: a covalency between the x^2-y^2 band and apical p-orbital, and a screening of correlation U by apical oxygen polarization. Both effects strongly depend on the apical oxygen position and their cooperative action explains the experiment.
The paper briefly surveys theoretical models for the polar Kerr effect (PKE) and time-reversal symmetry breaking in the pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors. By elimination, the most promising candidate is the tilted loop-current model, obtained from the Simon-Varma model by tilting one triangular loop up and another one down toward the apical oxygens. The model is consistent with the PKE, spin-polarized neutron scattering, and optical anisotropy measurements. Spontaneous currents in this model flow between the in-plane and apical oxygens in such a manner that each oxygen belongs to one …
We report on resistivity and Hall measurements in thin films of the electron-doped superconducting cuprate Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_{x}$CuO$_{4\pmδ}$. Comparisons between x = 0.17 samples subjected to either ion-irradiation or oxygenation demonstrate that changing the oxygen content has two separable effects: 1) a doping effect similar to that of cerium, and 2) a disorder effect. These results are consistent with prior speculations that apical oxygen removal is necessary to achieve superconductivity in this compound.
Using the apical oxygen doping mechanism, i.e. a partial substitution of divalence O for the monovalence Cl, a p-type oxychloride cuprate superconductor, Sr2CuO2+xCl2-y, was synthesized at high pressure high temperature. The x-ray diffraction refinement suggests the superconductor crystallizes into a 0201 structure with space group I4/mmm and lattice parameters being a=3.92A, c=15.6 A. The magnetic susceptibility as well as resistance measurements indicated that the bulk superconductivity with transition temperature 30K was achieved in the sample.
Electron-doped and hole-doped superconducting cuprates exhibit a symmetric phase diagram as a function of doping. This symmetry is however only approximate. Indeed, electron-doped cuprates become superconductors only after a specific annealing process: This annealing affects the oxygen content by only a tiny amount, but has a dramatic impact on the electronic properties of the sample. Here we report the occurrence of superconductivity in oxygen-deficient Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ thin films grown in an oxygen-free environment, after annealing in pure argon flow. As verified by x-ray diffraction,…
We report on an investigation of the redistribution of interlayer coherence in the trilayer cuprate Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10. The experiment is performed under the same apical-oxygen phonon excitation discussed in the past for the bilayer cuprate YBa2Cu3O6.5. In Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10, we observe a similar spectral weight loss at the transverse plasma mode resonance seen in YBa2Cu3O6.5. However, this feature is not accompanied by light-enhanced interlayer coherence that was seen in YBa2Cu3O6+x, for which the transverse plasma mode is observed at equilibrium even in the normal state. These new observations off…
A major open topic in cuprates is the interplay between the lattice and electronic dynamics and the importance of their coupling to the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC). As evidenced by Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure experiments (EXAFS), anharmonic structural effects are correlated with the charge dynamics and the transition to a superconducting phase in different HTSC compounds. Here we describe how structural anharmonic effects can be coupled to electronic and lattice dynamics in cuprate systems by performing the exact diagonalization of a prototype anharmonic…
Recent experiments on heterostructures composed of two or more films of cuprate superconductors of different oxygen doping levels\cite{Yuli,Gozar} have shown a remarkable T$_c$ enhancement (up to 50%) relative to single compound films. We provide here a simple explanation of the enhancement which arises naturally from a collection of experimental works. We show that the enhancement could be caused by a structural change in the lattice, namely an increase in the distance of the apical oxygen from the copper-oxygen plane. This increase modifies the effective off-site interaction in the plane whi…
We study the hole binding energy and pairing correlations in the three-band Hubbard model coupled to an apical oxygen phonon, by exact diagonalization and constrained-path Monte Carlo simulations. In the physically relevant charge-transfer regime, we find that the hole binding energy is strongly enhanced by the electron-phonon interaction, which is due to a novel potential-energy-driven pairing mechanism involving reduction of both electronic potential energy and phonon related energy. The enhancement of hole binding energy, in combination with a phonon-induced increase of quasiparticle weight…
The simple structure of HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$ (Hg1201) is ideal among cuprates for study of the pseudogap phase as a broken symmetry state. We have performed $^{17}$O nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) on an underdoped Hg1201 crystal with transition temperature of 74 K to look for circulating orbital currents proposed theoretically and inferred from neutron scattering. The narrow spectra preclude static local fields in the pseudogap phase at the apical site, suggesting that the moments observed with neutrons are fluctuating. The NMR frequency shifts are consistent with a dipolar field from the Cu$…
(CaCuO2)m/(La0.7Sr0.3MnO3)n superlattices, consisting of the infinite layers cuprate CaCuO2 and the optimally doped manganite La1-xSrxMnO3, were grown by pulsed laser deposition. The transport properties are dominated by the manganite block. X-Ray Absorption spectroscopy measurements show a clear evidence of an orbital reconstruction at the interface, ascribed to the hybridization between the Cu 3d3z2-r2 and the Mn 3d3z2-r2 orbitals via interface apical oxygen ions. Such a mechanism localizes holes at the interfaces, thus preventing charge transfer to the CaCuO2 block. Some charge (holes) tran…
The single-site dynamical mean-field approximation is used to solve a model of high-Tc cuprate superconductors which includes both d_{x^2-y^2} and d_{3z^2-r^2} orbitals on the Cu as well as the relevant oxygen states. Both T (with apical oxygen) and T' (without apical oxygen) crystal structures are considered. In both phases, inclusion of the d_{3z^2-r^2} orbital is found to broaden the range of stability of the charge transfer insulating phase. For equal charge transfer energies and interaction strengths, the T' phase is found to be less strongly correlated than the T phase. For both structur…
Motivated by the recent report of broken time-reversal symmetry and zero momentum magnetic scattering in underdoped cuprates, we investigate under which circumstances orbital currents circulating inside a unit cell might be stabilized in extended Hubbard models that explicitly include oxygen orbitals. Using Gutzwiller projected variational wave functions that treat on an equal footing all instabilities, we show that orbital currents indeed develop on finite clusters, and that they are stabilized in the thermodynamic limit if additional interactions, e.g. strong hybridization with apical oxygen…
First principles band-structure calculations for large supercells of Ba$_{2}$CuO$_{4-δ}$ and La$_{2}$CuO$_{4-δ}$ with different distributions and concentrations of oxygen vacancies show that the effective doping on copper sites strongly depends on where the vacancy is located. A vacancy within the Cu layer produces a weak doping effect while a vacancy located at an apical oxygen site acts as a stronger electron dopant on the copper layers and gradually brings the electronic structure close to that of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_{4}$. These effects are robust and only depend marginally on lattice dist…
Recently a phonon exchange d - wave pairing mechanism in cuprates was proposed. The phonons are the lateral apical oxygen atoms vibrations. They generate the attractive pairing potential peaked at X point of the Brillouin zone, V (k) = exp [-2kda], where da is distance from the CuO planes. The model explains a rather paradoxical well known negative correlation of the optimal doping critical temperature Tcmax with da and increase of Tcmax with pressure. However the large disparities in Tcmax, especially in one - layer cuprate superconductors, from 39K for La2-xSrxCuO4, to 95K for HgBa2CuO4+x, c…
We calculate the rate of transverse relaxation arising from vortex motion in the mixed state of YBa_2Cu_3O_7 with the static field applied along the c axis. The vortex dynamics are described by an overdamped Langevin equation with a harmonic elastic free energy. We find that the variation of the relaxation with temperature, average magnetic field, and local field is consistent with experiments; however, the calculated time dependence is different from what has been measured and the value of the rates calculated is roughly two orders of magnitude slower than what is observed. Combined with the …
Both families of high $T_c$ superconductors, iron pnictides and cuprates, exhibit material dependence of superconductivity. Here, we study its origin within the spin fluctuation pairing theory based on multiorbital models that take into account realistic band structures. For pnictides, we show that the presence and absence of Fermi surface pockets is sensitive to the pnictogen height measured from the iron plane due to the multiorbital nature of the system, which is reflected to the nodeless/nodal form of the superconducting gap and $T_c$. Surprisingly, even for the cuprates, which is conventi…
The superconducting properties of high-\tc\ materials are functions of carriers concentration, which is controlled by the concentration of defects including heterovalent cations, interstitial oxygen ions, and oxygen vacancies. Here we combine low-temperature thermal treatment of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ epitaxial thin films and confocal Raman spectroscopy to control and investigate oxygen vacancies. We demonstrate that the apical site is the most favorable position to accommodate oxygen vacancies under low-temperature annealing conditions. Additionally we show that in high-quality films of …
Many theoretical models of high temperature superconductivity focus only on the doping dependence of the CuO2 plane electronic structure. But such models are manifestly insufficient to explain the strong variations in superconducting critical temperature Tc among cuprates which have identical hole-density but are crystallographically different outside the CuO2 plane. A key challenge, therefore, has been to identify a predominant out-of-plane influence controlling the superconductivity - with much attention focusing on the distance $d_A$ between the apical oxygen and the planar copper atom. Her…
The tunneling path between the CuO2-layers in cuprate superconductors and a scanning tunneling microscope tip passes through a barrier made from other oxide layers. This opens up the possibility that inelastic processes in the barrier contribute to the tunneling spectra. Such processes cause one or possibly more peaks in the second derivative current-voltage spectra displaced by phonon energies from the density of states singularity associated with superconductivity. Calculations of inelastic processes generated by apical O-phonons show good qualitative agreement with recent experiments report…
Band structure calculations are presented for large supercells of Ba$_2$CuO$_4$ (BCO) with O-vacancies in planar or apic al positions, and of superoxygenated La$_2$CuO$_4$ (LCO) with oxygen interstitials in the La$_2$O$_2$ layers. It is foun d that apical oxygen vacancies in BCO act as electron dopants and makes the electronic structure similar to that of hole doped LCO. Excess oxygen interstitials forming wires in the La$_2$O$_2$ layers of LCO are shown to yield a much larger density-of-states at the Fermi energy than for the stoichiometric compound related with a segmentation of the Fermi su…
The 63Cu nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) frequency, nu_q, in the multi-layered cuprates is calculated in the cluster model by the exact diagonalization method. The charge imbalance between the outer CuO_2 plane (OP) with apical oxygen (OA) and the inner plane (IP) without OA in three-layered Tl2223 is estimated by comparing our results with the experimental nu_q. In Tl-based cuprates with more than three layers, we predict a large enhancement of the splitting of nu_q between OP and IP by taking into account the reduction of bond length between Cu and OA and a resulting enhancement of the ch…
We report the effects of low-temperature postannealing on the structural and superconducting properties of the recently discovered Ca-free double-layered cuprate, Sr$_2$SrCu$_2$O$_{4+y}$F$_{2-y}$. Although the as-synthesized sample prepared under high pressure has a tetragonal structure with a rock-salt-type blocking layer (the so-called $T$-phase), we found that the symmetry of the structure lowered to that of an orthorhombic system when annealed with CuF$_2$. The structural refinements reveal that such a topochemical reaction leads not only to the removal of excess O$^{2-}$ from the apical s…
The momentum dependent lineshape of the out-of-phase oxygen vibration as measured in recent neutron scattering measurements is investigated. Starting from a microscopic coupling of the phonon vibration to a local crystal field, the phonon lineshift and broadening is calculated as a function of transfered momentum in the superconducting state of YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7}$. It is shown that the anisotropy of the density of states, superconducting energy gap, and the electron-phonon coupling are all crucial in order to explain these experiments.
We address the question of whether the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of high-Tc cuprates is enhanced when randomly distributed dopant atoms form an ordered array in the charge reservoir layers. This study is possible for the Sr2CuO3+d superconductor with K2NiF4-type structure in which oxygen atoms only partially occupy the apical sites next to the CuO2 planes and act as hole-dopants. We show that remarkable Tc enhancement up to 95K in this mono CuO2 layered HTS is associated with the apical oxygen ordering, not to the hole concentration change. The result points a route toward fu…
In order to understand the material dependence of $T_c$ within the single-layered cuprates, we study a two-orbital model that considers both $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d_{z^2}$ orbitals. We reveal that a hybridization of $d_{z^2}$ on the Fermi surface substantially affects $T_c$ in the cuprates, where the energy difference $ΔE$ between the $d_{x^2-y2}$ and $d_{z^2}$ orbitals is identified to be the key parameter that governs both the hybridization and the shape of the Fermi surface. A smaller $ΔE$ tends to suppress $T_c$ through a larger hybridization, whose effect supersedes the effect of diamond-sha…
Hole-doped superconductivity above 100 K in infinite-layer cuprate thin films
National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学）；Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)（新加坡科技研究局材料研究与工程学院）；Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学材料科学与工程系）；Applied Materials—NUS Advanced Materials Corporate Lab（应用材料-新加坡国立大学先进材料联合实验室）
Planar large-bipolarons can form if the ratio of the surrounding mediums static to high-frequency dielectric constants is especially large. A large-bipolaron in p-doped La2CuO4 is modeled as two electrons being removed from the out-of-plane orbitals of four oxygen ions circumscribed by four copper ions of a CuO2 layer. These oxygen dianions relax inwardly as they donate electrons to the surrounding outwardly relaxing copper cations. This charge transfer generates the strong in-plane electron-lattice interaction needed to stabilize a large-bipolaron with respect to decomposing into polarons. Th…
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 Meissner effect has been directly demonstrated by depth-resolved muon spin rotation measurements in high-quality thin films of the T'-structured cuprate, T'-La$_{1.9}$Y$_{0.1}$CuO$_4$, to confirm bulk superconductivity ($T_c\simeq21$ K) in its {\sl undoped} state. The gradual expelling of an external magnetic field is observed over a depth range of $\sim$100 nm in films with a thickness of 275(15) nm, from which the penetration depth is deduced to be 466(22) nm. Based on this result, we argue that the true ground state of the "parent" compound of the $n$-type cuprates is not a Mott insulat…
The heat carriers responsible for the unexpectedly large thermal Hall conductivity of the cuprate Mott insulator La$_2$CuO$_4$ were recently shown to be phonons. However, the mechanism by which phonons in cuprates acquire chirality in a magnetic field is still unknown. Here, we report a similar thermal Hall conductivity in two cuprate Mott insulators with significantly different crystal structures and magnetic orders - Nd$_2$CuO$_4$ and Sr$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$ - and show that two potential mechanisms can be excluded - the scattering of phonons by rare-earth impurities and by structural domains. Ou…
We propose a model of a spatially modulated collective charge state of superconducting cuprates. The regions of higher carrier density (stripes) are described in terms of Luttinger liquids and the regions of lower density as a two-dimensional interacting bosonic gas of d_{x^2-y^2} hole pairs. The interactions among the elementary excitations are repulsive and the transition to the superconducting state is driven by decay processes. Vibrations of the CCS and the lattice, although not participating directly in the binding mechanism, are fundamental for superconductivity. The superfluid density a…
The families of high-temperature superconductors recently welcomed a new member: hole doped nickelate Nd$_{0.8}$Sr$_{0.2}$NiO$_2$ with a $\sim$15K transition temperature. To understand its emergent low-energy behaviors and experimental properties, an immediate key question is whether the superconducting hole carriers reside in oxygen as in the cuprates, or in nickel as in most nickelates. We answer this crucial question via a ``(LDA+$U$)+ED'' scheme: deriving an effective interacting Hamiltonian of the hole carriers from density functional LDA+$U$ calculation, and studying its local many-body …
Many important questions for high-$T_c$ cuprates are closely related to the insulating nature of parent compounds. While there has been intensive discussion on this issue, all arguments rely strongly on, or are closely related to, the correlation strength of the materials. Clear understanding has been seriously hampered by the absence of a direct measure of this interaction, traditionally denoted by $U$. Here, we report a first-principles estimation of $U$ for several different types of cuprates. The $U$ values clearly increase as a function of the inverse bond distance between apical oxygen a…
In order to explain the emergence of the anomalous pseudogap state and high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates, intense research activity over three decades has focused on unravelling the connection between the various instabilities of the underdoped regime. In the high-temperature superconductor (Ca$_x$La$_{1-x}$)(Ba$_{1.75-x}$La$_{0.25+x}$)Cu$_3$O$_y$ (CLBLCO) isovalent chemical substitution produces smooth changes to the CuO$_2$ plane buckling and the Cu(II)-to-apical-oxygen distance, allowing us to study the interdependence of charge-density-wave (CDW) order, superconductivity a…
We study the thermally fluctuating state of a bi-layer cuprate superconductor under the periodic action of a staggered field oscillating at optical frequencies. This analysis distills essential elements of the recently discovered phenomenon of light enhanced coherence in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$, which was achieved by periodically driving infrared active apical oxygen distortions. The effect of a staggered periodic perturbation is studied using a Langevin and Fokker-Planck description of driven, coupled Josephson junctions, which represent two neighboring pairs of layers and their two plasmons. …
Using a first principles linear response approach, we study the magnetic exchange interactions J for a series of superconducting cuprates. We reproduce the observed spin-wave dispersions together with other experimental trends, and show that different cuprates have similar J's regardless their T$_{c}$. The nearest neighbor J is not sensitive to the hole-doping, which agrees with recent experiments. For the undoped cuprates, the second nearest neighbor J is ferromagnetic, but changes its sign with hole-doping. We also find that, in contrast to the hopping integral, the exchange interaction is n…
We propose and analyze a scheme for parametrically cooling bilayer cuprates based on the selective driving of a $c$-axis vibrational mode. The scheme exploits the vibration as a transducer making the Josephson plasma frequencies time-dependent. We show how modulation at the difference frequency between the intra- and interbilayer plasmon substantially suppresses interbilayer phase fluctuations, responsible for switching $c$-axis transport from a superconducting to resistive state. Our calculations indicate that this may provide a viable mechanism for stabilizing non-equilibrium superconductivi…
The O(oxygen)-M(metal)-O(oxygen) molecule is a basic unit of high-temperature superconducting cuprates and colossal magnetoresistance exhibiting manganates. This molecule can be regarded either as an element of a linear chain or as an ingredient of the corresponding cuprate or manganate lattice. The symmetry of the unit being different in the two approaches, group theory imposes different limitations on conceivable vibrational modes and atomic otbitals that control its transport and optical properties. We now calculate the electron hopping energies along Cu(P0-O(A) bonds, sites for nonlocal el…
Scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) measurements were carried out on a multi-layered cuprate superconductor Ba$_2$Ca$_5$Cu$_6$O$_{12}$(O$_{1-x}$,F$_x$)$_2$. STM topography revealed random spot structures with the characteristic length $\le 0.5$ nm. The conductance spectra dI/dV(V) show the coexistence of smaller gaps $Δ_S$ and large gaps (pseudogaps) $Δ_L$. The pseudogap-related features in the superconducting state were traced with the spatial resolution of $\sim$ 0.07 nm. Here, $I$ and $V$ are the tunnel current and bias voltage, respectively. The temperature, $T$, dependenc…
A series of new Sr2-xBaxCuO3+y (0 x 0.6) superconductors were prepared using high-pressure and high-temperature synthesis. A Rietveld refinement based on powder x-ray diffraction confirms that the superconductors crystallize in the K2NiF4-type structure of a space group I4/mmm similar to that of La2CuO4 but with partially occupied apical oxygen sites. It is found that the superconducting transition temperature Tc of this Ba substituted Sr2CuO3+y superconductor with constant carrier doping level, i.e., constant d, is controlled not only by order/disorder of apical-O atoms but also by Ba content…
Nonlinear optical excitation of infrared active lattice vibrations has been shown to melt magnetic or orbital orders and to transform insulators into metals. In cuprates, this technique has been used to remove charge stripes and promote superconductivity, acting in a way opposite to static magnetic fields. Here, we show that excitation of large-amplitude apical oxygen distortions in the cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3O6.5 promotes highly unconventional electronic properties. Below the superconducting transition temperature (Tc = 50 K), interbilayer coherence is transiently enhanced at the expen…
The recently reported subgap structures observed in the current-voltage characteristic of intrinsic Josephson junctions in the high-T_c superconductors Tl_2Ba_2Ca_2Cu_3O_{10+δ} and Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+δ} are explained by the coupling between c-axis phonons and Josephson oscillations. A model is developed where c-axis lattice vibrations between adjacent superconducting multilayers are excited by the Josephson oscillations in a resistive junction. The voltages of the lowest structures correspond well to the frequencies of longitudinal c-axis phonons with large oscillator strength in the two mater…
