We put forth a mechanism for enhancing the interlayer transport in cuprate superconductors, by optically driving plasmonic excitations along the $c$ axis with a frequency that is blue-detuned from the Higgs frequency. The plasmonic excitations induce a collective oscillation of the Higgs field which induces a parametric enhancement of the superconducting response, as we demonstrate with a minimal analytical model. Furthermore, we perform simulations of a particle-hole symmetric $U(1)$ lattice gauge theory and find good agreement with our analytical prediction. We map out the renormalization of the interlayer coupling as a function of the parameters of the optical field and demonstrate that the Higgs mode mediated enhancement can be larger than $50\%$.
We comment on the work by Moler, et al., [Science 279, 1193 (1998)] concerning determination of the c-axis penetration depth in the single-layer compound Tl-2201 through measuring the magnetic flux due to isolated interlayer Josephson vortices.
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.
We consider the interlayer pair-tunneling model for layered cuprates, including an effective single particle hopping along the c-axis. A phenomenological suppression of the c-axis hopping matrix element, by the pseudogap in cuprate superconductors, is incorporated. At optimal doping, quantities characteristic to the superconducting state, such as the transition temperature and the superconducting gap are calculated. Results from our calculations are consistent with the experimental observations with the noteworthy point that, the superconducting gap as a function of temperature shows excellent…
Vertically Correlated Disorder and Structured Interlayer Tunneling in Cuprates
B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine（乌克兰国家科学院 B.维尔金低温物理与工程学院研究所）；Smart Materials Group, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg（南丹麦大学马兹·克拉斯恩学院智能材料研究组）
Over the past few years, several exciting experiments in the cuprates have seen evidence of a transient superconducting state upon optical excitation polarized along the c-axis [R. Mankowsky et al., Nature 516, 71 (2014)]. The competition between d-form-factor order and superconductivity in these materials has been proposed as an important factor in the observed enhancement of superconductivity. Central to this effect is the structure of the bond-density-wave along the c-axis, in particular, the $c$-axis component of the ordering vector $Q_z$. Motivated by the fact that the bond-density-wave o…
An outstanding question concerning the underdoped cuprate concerns the true nature of their Fermi surface which appears as a set of disconnected arcs. Theoretical models have proposed two distinct possibilities: (1) each arc is the observable part of a partially-hidden closed pocket, and (2) each arc is open, truncated at its apparent ends. We show that measurements of the variation of the interlayer resistance with the direction of a magnetic field parallel to the layers can qualitatively distinguish closed pockets from open arcs. This is possible because the field can be oriented such that a…
From study of the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii (KTB) transition in the superfluid density, n_s(T), of ultrathin c-axis oriented YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-δ} (YBCO) films, we find that interlayer coupling is unexpectedly strong. The KTB transition occurs at a high temperature, as if the films were isotropic rather than quasi-two-dimensional. This result agrees with a comparison of the superfluid density of YBCO with Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8} and with numerical simulations of Josephson junction arrays, and challenges the thermal phase fluctuation interpretation of critical behavior near T_c in YBCO.
We find systematic signatures suggesting a different superconducting nature for a triple-layered cuprate Bi$_2$Sr$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{10+δ}$ with respect to a double-layer through the properties of intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs). Our measurements on the current-voltage characteristics reveal that the $c$-axis maximum Josephson current density is sensitive to the superfluid density in outer planes while the critical temperature and the superconducting gap remain unaffected. Switching dynamics of stacked IJJs exhibit that the fluctuation in gauge-invariant phase difference of an IJJ implies…
In cuprate superconductors, tunneling between planes makes possible three-dimensional coherent transport. However, the interlayer tunnelling amplitude is reduced when an order-parameter phase gradient between planes is established. As such, c-axis superconductivity can be weakened if a strong electric field is applied along the c axis. We use high-field single-cycle terahertz pulses to gate interlayer coupling in La1.84Sr0.16CuO4. We induce ultrafast oscillations between superconducting and resistive states and switch the plasmon response on and off, without reducing the density of Cooper pair…
The c-axis quasiparticle conductivity shows different behavior depending on the nature of the interlayer coupling. For coherent coupling with a constant hopping amplitude $t_{\perp}$, the conductivity at zero frequency and zero temperature $σ(0,0)$ depends on the direction of the magnetic field, but it does not for angle-dependent hopping $t(ϕ)$ which removes the contribution of the nodal quasiparticles. For incoherent coupling, the conductivity is also independent of field direction and changes only when paramagnetic effects are included. The conductivity sum rule can be used to determine the…
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…
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 …
A more extended low density region of coexisting uniform antiferromagnetism and d-wave superconductivity has been reported in multilayer cuprates, when compared to single or bilayer cuprates. This coexistence could be due to the enhanced screening of random potential modulations in inner layers or to the interlayer Heisenberg and Josephson couplings. A theoretical analysis using a renormalized mean field theory, favors the former explanation. The potential for an improved determination of the antiferromagnetic and superconducting order parameters in an ideal single layer from zero field NMR an…
A theoretical model of c-axis transport properties in cuprates is proposed. Inter-plane and in-plane charge fluctuations make hopping between planes incoherent and diffusive (the in-plane momentum is not conserved after tunneling). The non-Drude optical conductivity $σ_c(ω)$ and the power-law temperature dependence of the {\it dc} conductivity are generically explained by the strong fluctuations excited in the process of tunneling. Several microscopic models of the charge fluctuation spectrum are considered.
We calculate angle-dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) for interlayer transport of cuprate superconductors in the presence of ($π,π$) order. The order reconstructs the Fermi surface, creating magnetic breakdown junctions; we show how such magnetic breakdown effects can be incorporated into calculations of interlayer conductivity for this system. We successfully fit experimental data with our model, and these fits suggest a connection between ($π,π$) order and the anisotropic scattering observed in overdoped cuprates. This work paves the way for the use of AMRO as a tool to distingu…
Motivated by the recent discovery of helical magnetic structure in RbEuFe$_{4}$As$_{4}$, we investigate interlayer ordering of magnetic moments in materials composed of spatially-separated superconducting and ferromagnetically-aligned layers. We consider the interplay between the normal and superconducting indirect exchange interaction mediated by tunneling between the conducting layers. We elaborate a recipe to evaluate the normal interlayer interaction via two-dimensional density of states of an isolated layer and demonstrate that for bands with small fillings, such interaction is typically …
A Ginzburg-Landau-like functional is proposed reproducing the main low-energy features of various possible high-Tc superconducting mechanisms involving energy savings due to interlayer interactions. The functional may be used to relate these savings to experimental quantities. Two examples are given, involving the mean-field specific heat jump at Tc and the superconducting fluctuations above Tc. Comparison with existing data suggests, e.g., that the increase of Tc due to the so-called interlayer tunneling (ILT) mechanism of interlayer kinetic-energy savings is negligible in optimally-doped Bi-…
We theoretically show that terahertz pulses with controlled amplitude and frequency can be used to switch between stable transport modes in layered superconductors, modelled as stacks of Josephson junctions. We find pulse shapes that deterministically switch the transport mode between superconducting, resistive and solitonic states. We develop a simple model that explains the switching mechanism as a destablization of the centre of mass excitation of the Josephson phase, made possible by the highly non-linear nature of the light-matter coupling.
The disclosure of spinon superconductivity and superconductivity mediated by spin-waves in hole-doped Bi2212 cuprate raises the question about the origin of the superconductivity in other cuprates and specially in an electron-doped NCCO cuprate.
Considerable progress has been made over the last decade in understanding the phenomenological properties of the cuprate high-T$_{c}$ superconductors and in producing well characterized high quality materials. Nevertheless, the pairing mechanism itself remains controversial. We establish a criterion to test theories for layered superconductors relying on a substantial interlayer contribution. The criterion is based on the ratio of the interlayer contribution to the total superfluid density, which is traced back to the inverse squared effective mass anisotropy. The anisotropy can be measured ra…
Twisting two monolayers of a high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductor can engender a chiral topological state with spontaneously broken time reversal symmetry $\mathcal{T}$. A crucial ingredient required for the emergence of a gapped topological phase is electron tunneling between the CuO$_2$ planes, whose explicit form (in an ideal clean sample) is dictated by the symmetry of the atomic orbitals. However, a large body of work on the interlayer transport in cuprates indicates importance of disorder-mediated incoherent tunneling which evades the symmetry constraints present in an idealized crystal. Th…
A modified version of the interlayer tunneling model, including interlayer single particle hopping (ISPH), is considered as a phenomenological model to describe cuprate superconductors. The effective ISPH (t_\perp^{eff}) is taken along with a probability factor P, that involves the normal state pseudogap (E_g). This makes t_\perp^{eff} to mimic experimental observations that, ISPH is small in the underdoped regime and increases towards overdoping. Within the modified model, we establish the absence of bilayer splitting as observed in case of layered cuprates. Transition temperature (T_c) and t…
In this work, we generalize the theory of localized surface plasmons to the case of high-Tc cuprate superconductors, spatially confined in the form of small spherical particles. At variance from ordinary metals, cuprate superconductors are characterized by a low-energy bulk excitation known as the Josephson plasma wave (JPW), arising from interlayer tunneling of the condensate along the c-axis. The effect of the JPW is revealed in a characteristic spectrum of surface excitations, which we call Josephson surface plasmons. Our results, which apply to any material with a strongly anisotropic elec…
We have studied tunneling-mediated local density of states (LDOS) of the surface layer of a bilayer cuprate, where a Zn impurity is located on the second Cu-O layer. When the tunneling strength between two Cu-O layers is larger than a critical value, the LDOS on the site just above the Zn impurity first exhibits a resonant peak near the Fermi surface. The larger the tunneling strength, the stronger the resonant peak. It is also shown that the height of the resonant peak oscillates decreasingly with the distance from the site just above the Zn impurity. The location of the resonant peak in the …
We use resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) to probe the propagation of plasmons in the electron-doped cuprate superconductor Sr$_{0.9}$La$_{0.1}$CuO$_2$ (SLCO). We detect a plasmon gap of $\sim$~120 meV at the two-dimensional Brillouin zone center, indicating that low-energy plasmons in SLCO are not strictly acoustic. The plasmon dispersion, including the gap, is accurately captured by layered $t$-$J$-$V$ model calculations. A similar analysis performed on recent RIXS data from other cuprates suggests that the plasmon gap is generic and its size is related to the magnitude of the interl…
We study doping dependence of interlayer hoppings, t_\perp, in multilayered cuprates with four or more CuO_2 planes in a unit cell. When the double occupancy is forbidden in the plane, an effective amplitude of t_\perp in the Gutzwiller approximation is shown to be proportional to the square root of the product of doping rates in adjacent two planes, i.e., t^eff_\perp \propto t_\perp \sqrt{δ_1δ_2}, where δ_1 and δ_2 represent the doping rates of the two planes. More than three-layered cuprates have two kinds of \cuo planes, i.e., inner- and outer planes (IP and OP), resulting in two different …
Based on a hybrid interlayer coupling mechanism, we study the coexistence of superconductivity (SC) and antiferromagnetism (AFM) in trilayer cuprates. By introducing an interlayer magnetic scattering term, we solve the multilayer $t{-}J$ model with Josephson coupling under the framework of Gutzwiller projection. We show that both the SC and AFM orders in the multilayered system are enhanced and the range of AFM order is extended. The layer configuration of d-wave pairing gap and AFM order further plays an essential role in determining the interlayer magnetic and superconducting coupling phase …
We discuss the effects of a magnetic field applied parallel to the Cu-O ($ab$) plane of the high $T_c$ cuprate superconductors. After briefly reviewing the Zeeman effect of the field, we study the orbital effects, using the Lawrence-Doniach model for layered superconductors as a guide to the physics. We argue that the orbital effect is qualitatively different for in-plane and inter-layer mechanisms for superconductivity. In the case of in-plane mechanisms, interlayer couplings may be modeled as a weak interlayer Josephson coupling, whose effects disappear as $H\to\infty$; in this case Zeeman d…
We use ultrashort intense laser pulses to study superconducting state vaporization dynamics in La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO4 (x=0.1 and 0.15) on the femtosecond timescale. We find that the energy density required to vaporize the superconducting state is 2+- 0.8 K/Cu and 2.6 +- 1 K/Cu for x=0.1 and 0.15 respectively. This is significantly greater than the condensation energy density, indicating that the quasiparticles share a large amount of energy with the boson glue bath on this timescale. Considering in detail both spin and lattice energy relaxation pathways which take place on the relevant timescale of …
We systematically explore the exquisiteness of Bardeen-Cooper-Schriefer(BCS) theory where the BCS-type electron-phonon interaction is unambiguously reinforced as the only viable superglue in cuprate superconductors because phonon-induced scattering is effectively nil for Cooper pairs (in its original form), and also phonons are never required to Bose-condense. Here, we prove that (i) the Cooper-pair binding energy can be strengthened to obtain high superconductor transition temperature (Tsc) and (ii) the existence of a generalized electron-phonon potential operator that can induce the finite-t…
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…
We utilize the Hubbard model to demonstrate that doping of the antiferromagnetic parent compounds of cuprate superconductors stabilizes a spin liquid state. Superconductivity in such a state emerges due to the spin-orbit coupling between charge current and superfluidity of spinon condensate, resulting in a chiral relation between the order parameter phase gradient and supercurrent. We propose simple experimental tests for the presented mechanism.
We study the twisted Hubbard model of a cuprate bilayer at a fixed twist angle $θ=53.13^{\circ}$ using the variational cluster approximation, a method that treats short-range dynamical correlations exactly. At intermediate interlayer tunneling, the phase difference $ϕ$ between the $d$-wave order parameters of two layers is $π$ in the overdoped regime, while it is zero in the underdoped regime, close to the Mott phase. At strong interlayer tunneling, we observe a clear time-reversal symmetry breaking phase near optimal doping, in which the phase difference $ϕ$ changes continuously from 0 to $π$…
Taking into account the first localization corrections in the electron-impurity self-energy we study the effect of non-magnetic impurities on unconventional superconductivity (SC) mediated by small-q electron-phonon scattering. We show that when van Hove singularities are close to the Fermi level making the electronic system anisotropic as in the high-$T_c$ oxides, both the d-wave and s-wave states are sensitive to non-magnetic impurities and beyond a critical impurity concentration SC disappears in {\it both gap symmetry channels}. Impurity doping may induce a first order transition from d-wa…
A subharmonic structure in Josephson junctions appears due to Andreev reflections within the junction. Here we report on experimental observation of a subharmonic half-gap singularity in interlayer tunneling characteristics of a layered high temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d. The singularity is most pronounced in optimally doped crystals and vanishes with decreasing doping. It indicates existence of non-vanishing electronic density of states and certain metallic properties in the intermediate BiO layers, which grows stronger with increasing doping. This provides an additional coherent…
The magnetic oscillations in YBCO high-temperature superconductors have been widely studied over the last decade and consist of three equidistant low frequencies with a central frequency several times more intense than its two shoulders. This remains a puzzle in spite of numerous attempts to explain the corresponding small Fermi-surface pockets. Furthermore the ARPES data indicate only four Fermi-arcs with bilayer splitting, and show no sign of such small areas in the Fermi surface. Here we argue that the magnetic oscillations measured in under-doped bilayer high temperature superconductors, i…
A review is given of the experimental status of the interlayer coupling energy in the cuprates. A second c-axis plasmon is identified in the double layer compound Y123 for various dopings. The anomalous transport properties along the c-direction and in the planar directions are compared to model calculations based on strongly anisotropic scattering. An excellent description of the optical data at optimal doping is obtained if an anomalously large anisotropy of the scattering rate between cold spots and hot spots is assumed. This raises questions as to the physical meaning of these parameters.
Unconventional symmetry-breaking phenomena due to nontrivial order parameters attract increasing attention in strongly correlated electron systems. Here, we predict theoretically the occurrence of nanoscale spontaneous spin-current, called the spin loop-current (sLC) order, as a promising origin of the pseudogap and electronic nematicity in cuprates. We reveal that the sLC is driven by the odd-parity electron-hole condensation that are mediated by transverse spin fluctuations around the pseudogap temperature $T^*$. At the same temperature, odd-parity magnon pair condensation occurs. The sLC or…
We show that the interlayer transport in a two-dimensional superconductor can reveal a peak in the temperature as well as the magnetic field dependence of the resistivity near the superconducting transition. The magnetotransport experiment was performed on the highly anisotropic misfit-layer superconductor (LaSe)$_{1.14}$(NbSe$_2$) with critical tempertaure $T_c$ of 1.2 K. The effect is interpreted within the tunneling mechanism of the charge transport across the Josephson-coupled layers via two parallel channels - the quasiparticles and the Cooper pairs. Similar behavior can be found in the h…
We report on the study of electron transport in the oxide heterostructures with superconductor/magnetic matter (S/M) interfaces where anomaly large penetration of superconducting correlations in magnetic matter (proximity effect) is realized. The developed theoretical model based on multilayer magnetic structure of M-interlayer and experiment show presence of the long-range proximity effect at S/M-interface with antiferromagnetic (AF) ordering of the interlayer magnetization. The investigated hybrid heterostructures include cuprate superconductor, the AF-cuprate interlayer and conventional sup…
The interplay between the superconducting gap and normal-state pseudogap in the bilayer cuprate superconductors is studied based on the kinetic energy driven superconducting mechanism. It is shown that the charge carrier interaction directly from the interlayer coherent hopping in the kinetic energy by exchanging spin excitations does not provide the contribution to the normal-state pseudogap in the particle-hole channel and superconducting gap in the particle-particle channel, while only the charge carrier interaction directly from the intralayer hopping in the kinetic energy by exchanging sp…
We present an extension of the c-axis tight-binding sum rule discussed by Chakravarty, Kee, and Abrahams [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2366 (1999)] that applies to multilayer high-Tc cuprate superconductors (HTCS) and use it to estimate--from available infrared data--the change below Tc of the c-axis kinetic energy, Hc, in YBa2Cu3O(7-delta) (delta=0.45,0.25,0.07), Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8, and Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10. In all these compounds Hc decreases below Tc and except for Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 the change of Hc is of the same order of magnitude as the condensation energy. This observation supports the hypothesis that in mul…
The most anisotropic high temperature superconductors like Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8, as well as the recently discovered layered manganite La1.4Sr1.6Mn2O7 are layered metallic systems where the interlayer current transport occurs via sequential tunneling of charge carriers. As a consequence, in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 adjacent CuO2 double layers form an intrinsic Josephson tunnel junction while in in La1.4Sr1.6Mn2O7 tunneling of spin polarized charge carriers between adjacent MnO2 layers leads to an intrinsic spin valve effect. We present and discuss interlayer transport experiments for both systems. To perform the…
We present \emph{c} axis infrared optical data on a number of Ba, Sr and Nd-doped cuprates of the La$_{2}$CuO$_{4}$ (La214) series in which we observe significant deviations from the universal Josephson relation linking the normal state transport (DC conductivity $σ_{DC}$ measured at $T_{c}$) with the superfluid density ($ρ_{s}$): $ρ_{s}\proptoσ_{DC}(T_{c})$. We find the violation of Josephson scaling is associated with striking enhancement of the anisotropy in the superfluid density. The data allows us to link the breakdown of Josephson interlayer physics with the development of magnetic orde…
We report on the electronic transport and the impact of spin-filtering in mesa-structures made of epitaxial thin films of cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3Ox(YBCO) and the manganite LaMnO3 (LMO) interlayer with the Au/Nb counterelectrode. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements of heterostructure Au/LMO/YBCO shows ferromagnetic state at temperatures below 150 K as in the case of reference LMO film grown on the neodymium gallate substrate. The heights of the tunneling barrier evaluated from resistive characteristics of mesa-structures at different thickness of interlayer showed an exponential decreas…
We suggest that the high temperature superconductivity in cuprate compounds may emerge due to interaction between copper-oxygen layers mediated by in-plane plasmons. The strength of the interaction is determined by the c-axis geometry and by the ab-plane optical properties. Without making reference to any particular in-plane mechanism of superconductivity, we show that the interlayer interaction favors spontaneous appearance of the superconductivity in the layers. At a qualitative level the model describes correctly the dependence of the transition temperature on the interlayer distance, and o…
Gap structure and phase diagram of twisted bilayer cuprates from a microscopic perspective
University of Florida（佛罗里达大学）；Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学尼尔斯玻尔研究所）；Uppsala University（乌普萨拉大学）；Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi (ISC-CNR)（复杂系统研究所（意大利国家研究委员会））
Oxygen-isotope effect has been investigated in a recently discovered superconductor Sr_{0.4}K_{0.6}BiO_{3}. This compound has a distorted perovskite structure and becomes superconducting at about 12 K. Upon replacing ^{16}O with ^{18}O by 60-80%, the T_c of the sample is shifted down by 0.32-0.50 K, corresponding to an isotope exponent of alpha_{O} = 0.40(5). This isotope exponent is very close to that for a similar bismuthate superconductor Ba_{1-x}K_{x}BiO_{3} with T_c = 30 K. The very distinctive doping and T_c dependencies of alpha_{O} observed in bismuthates and cuprates suggest that bism…
By interpreting various experimental data for the new high temperature FeAs type superconductors in terms of lattice mediated multi gap superconductivity, it is shown that these systems strongly resemble MgB2, however, with the distinction that local polaronic lattice effects exist. This fact establishes a connection to cuprate high temperature superconductors where polaron formation is essential for the pseudogap phase and the unconventional isotope effects observed there. However, similar to MgB2 and in contrast to cuprates the two superconducting gaps in the Fe-As based materials are isotro…
We discuss the effects of interlayer hopping and the resulting $k_z$-dispersion in the cuprates within the framework of the one-band tight binding (TB) model Hamiltonian. Specific forms of the dispersion relations in terms of the in-plane hopping parameters $t$, $t'$, $t''$ and $t'''$ and the effective interlayer hopping $t_z$ in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) and Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ (NCCO) and the added intracell hopping $t_{bi}$ between the CuO$_2$ bilayers in Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8}$ (Bi2212) are presented. The values of the `bare' parameters are obtained via fits with the first prin…
Motivated by the recent resonant x-ray scattering (RXS) and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) experiments in electron-doped cuprates, we study the charge excitation spectrum in a layered t-J model with the long-range Coulomb interaction. We show that the spectrum is not dominated by a specific type of charge excitations, but by different kinds of charge fluctuations, and is characterized by a dual structure in the energy space. Low-energy charge excitations correspond to various types of bond-charge fluctuations driven by the exchange term (J-term) whereas high-energy charge excitatio…
We examine coupling interactions used to synchronize macroscopic Josephson oscillations induced in intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJ) mesa stacks made of a Bi2212 single crystal. Synchronized radiations of terahertz electromagnetic (EM) waves are detected under common voltage and current bias operations of two connected mesas with close individual radiation frequencies, while uncoupled and bimodal radiations are frequently observed in two mesas with different individual radiation frequencies. Detailed observations of the polarizations of the EM waves emitted when two mesas are biased in parall…
Transport measurements provide important characterizations of the nature of stripe order in the cuprates. Initial studies of systems such as La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4) demonstrated the strong anisotropy between in-plane and c-axis resistivities, but also suggested that stripe order results in a tendency towards insulating behavior within the planes at low temperature. More recent work on La(2-x)Ba(x)CuO(4) with x=1/8 has revealed the occurrence of quasi-two-dimensional superconductivity that onsets with spin-stripe order. The suppression of three-dimensional superconductivity indicates a frus…
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 generalize the numerical renormalization group scheme to study the phonon-mediated retarded interactions in the high Tc cuprates. We find that three sets of phonon-mediated retarded quasiparticle scatterings grow under RG flow. These scatterings share the following common features: 1) the initial and final quasiparticle momenta are in the antinodal regions, and 2) the scattering amplitudes have a $x^2-y^2$ symmetry. All three sets of retarded interaction are driven to strong coupling by the magnetic fluctuations around $(π,π)$. After growing strong, these retarded interaction will trigger d…
