Many years of intense research on cuprate superconductors have led to several discoveries, such as the pseudogap and charge density waves (CDW), yet a complete theory is still lacking. By analyzing some experiments and performing calculations, we provide a full interpretation of their properties; from the undoped insulator to the overdoped metallic compounds. The variation of the anomalous Hall coefficient ($R_{\rm H}(T)$) with temperature at half-filling ($n = 1$) and, combinations of undoped ($p = 0$) insulators and metallic films, which, among other things, are indicative of a thermodynamic transition. On the overdoped side, recent experiments near the superconducting-to-metal transition detecting superconducting puddles and a considerable degree of charge disorder, suggest that a similar thermodynamic transition operates at all doping levels. We propose a spinodal or charge-separation transition starting near the pseudogap temperature $T^*(p)$, which among other things generates the CDW domains with a typical double-well Landau free-energy functional. Thus, from the half-filled to the overdoped region, the free energy forms an array of wells with $n = 1$ {\it static} holes. With doping, {\it mobile} holes tend to occupy these wells with alternating high and low densities, generating the CDW pattern. The confined holes in small regions develop local superconducting amplitudes, giving rise to a mesoscopic granular superconductor. Similar to the XY model, the grains develop correlation effects mediated by Josephson coupling, which is proportional to the local superfluid density. This approach yields a unified theory of cuprate superconductors.
The effect of oxygen isotope substitution on Tc has been analyzed for heavily underdoped and overdoped La2-xSrxCu1-yZnyO4 compounds with different Zn contents in the CuO2 plane. The effect of Zn on the isotope exponent, α, was more pronounced in the case of the underdoped (x = 0.09) compounds compared to the overdoped (x = 0.22) ones. The variation of α with in-plane disorder can be described quite well within a model based solely on impurity induced Cooper pair-breaking in the case of the underdoped compounds. This model, on the other hand, fails to describe the behavior of α(y) for the overd…
The temperature dependences of AC magnetic susceptibility at different magnetic field amplitudes and frequencies are investigated for underdoped and overdoped R(1-x)Ca(x)Ba(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta)(R=Y; Gd and x=0; 0.2) polycrystalline samples. The activation energy, Ea, for thermally assisted flux flow (TAFF) in intergranular region is determined. It was established that a correlation exists between the intergranular critical current and flux pinning activation energy. In underdoped samples the intergranular current shows S-I-S behaviour and the activation energy is small, while in overdoped samples…
Low-temperature T$^{2}$ resistivity in the underdoped pseudogap phase versus T-linear resistivity in the overdoped strange-metal phase of cuprate superconductors
A wide-range doping was achieved by a high-pressure method for TbFeAsO1-x from "under doped" to "over doped" superconducting compositions throughout the optimized superconductivity (Tc of 44 K). Tc vs. lattice constant shows a dome-shaped feature, while Tc vs. the lattice constant likely follows a unique empirical curve over the doping range. The relatively large amount of oxygen vacancies up to 0.3 per the formula unit was introduced possibly because of the smaller replacement Tb than the other Ln (rare-earth element) in the LnFeAsO1-x system.
We have measured the extended x-ray absorption-fine-structure (EXAFS) at the Y-K edge of YBa_2Cu_3O_x for x=6.801, 6.947, 6.968, 6.984 at T=20-300 K. Across the underdoped-overdoped transition the Y-Cu2 pairs exhibit harmonic vibrations which freeze out in the superconducting phase, whereas the Y-O2,3 pairs exhibit strong anharmonicities with a singularity at T_c. In the underdoped regime the average spacing O2,3-Cu2 increases with x due to displacements of Cu2 towards Ba, but the average position of O2,3 along c is almost unaffected. Optimum doping is a notable point in the x-T phase diagram,…
Oxygen doping in metallic YBa_2Cu_3O_x induces quadrupolar "alpha-ortho'', and breathing "beta-ortho" deformations of the CuO_2 planes. Breathing beta-ortho deformations favour hybridizations of the pd sigma Cu3d_x^2-y^2 - O2p_x,y with the pd pi Cu3d_x,z, 3d_y,z-O2p_z bands relaxing the confinement of the carriers in the overdoped regime, x>6.95.
By measuring the superconducting diamagnetic moments for an underdoped and an overdoped La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 single crystal with equal qualities and roughly equal transition temperatures, it is found that the underdoped sample has only one transition which corresponds to H_{c2}, but the overdoped sample has two transitions with the higher one at H_{c2}. Further investigation reveals the same upper-critical field H_{c2} for both samples although the overall charge densities are very different, indicating the possibility of a very direct and detailed equivalence of the superconducting condensation …
New tunneling data are reported in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-d using superconductor-insulator-superconductor break junctions. Energy gaps, Delta, of 51+2, 54+2 and 57+3 meV are observed for three crystals with Tc=77, 74, and 70 K respectively. These energy gaps are nearly three times larger than for overdoped crystals with similar Tc. Detailed examination of tunneling spectra over a wide doping range from underdoped to overdoped, including the Josephson IcRn product, indicate that these energy gaps are predominantly of superconducting origin.
Several experimental and theoretical studies indicate the existence of a critical point separating the underdoped and overdoped regions of the high-T_c cuprates' phase diagram. There are at least two distinct proposals on the critical concentration and its physical origin. First one is associated with the pseudogap formation for p<p*, with p~0.2. Another one relies on the Hall effect measurements and suggests that the critical point and the quantum phase transition (QPT) take place at optimal doping, p_{opt}~0.16. Here we have performed a precise density of states calculation and found that th…
A structural phase transformation in the CuO_2 planes of YBa_2Cu_3O_x has been observed at the onset of the overdoped regime, x=6.95. We have measured as a function of x the dimpling in the CuO_2 planes by EXAFS, and the O2,3 in-phase (A_1g) mode by Raman scattering. The data show for x>6.95 anomalously large static displacements of the Cu2 atoms off the O2,3 layer, and a gap in the distribution of the O2,3 in-phase Raman shifts. We conclude the structure of overdoped YBa_2Cu_3O_x to be a martensitic form of the structure most favourable for the superconductivity, and possibly at the origin of…
We report the first NMR investigation of spin dynamics in the overdoped non-superconducting regime of Ba(Fe[1-x]Co[x])2As2 up to x =0.26. We demonstrate that the absence of inter-band transitions with large momentum transfer Q(AF) ~ (pi, 0) between the hole and electron Fermi surfaces results in complete suppression of antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations for x > 0.15. Our experimental results provide direct evidence for a correlation between Tc and the strength of Q(AF) antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations.
We report an ARPES investigation of the circular dichroism in the first Brillouin zone (BZ) of under- and overdoped Pb-Bi2212 samples. We show that the dichroism has opposite signs for bonding and antibonding components of the bilayer-split CuO-band and is antisymmetric with respect to reflections in both mirror planes parallel to the c-axis. Using this property of the energy and momentum intensity distributions we prove the existence of the bilayer splitting in the normal state of the underdoped compound and compare its value with the splitting in overdoped sample. In agreement with previous …
We use inelastic neutron scattering to show that superconductivity in electron-underdoped NaFe0.985Co0.015As induces a dispersive sharp resonance near Er1 = 3:25 meV and a broad dis- persionless mode at Er2 = 6 meV. However, similar measurements on overdoped superconducting NaFe0:955Co0:045As find only a single sharp resonance at Er = 7 meV. We connect these results with the observations of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy that the superconducting gaps in the electron Fermi pockets are anisotropic in the underdoped material but become isotropic in the overdoped case. Our analysis indi…
We propose a theoretical description of the superconducting state of under- to overdoped cuprates, based on the short coherence length of these materials and the associated strong pairing fluctuations. The calculated $T_c$ and the zero temperature excitation gap $Δ(0)$, as a function of hole concentration $x$, are in semi-quantitative agreement with experiment. Although the ratio $T_c/Δ(0)$ has a strong $x$ dependence, different from the universal BCS value, and $Δ(T)$ deviates significantly from the BCS prediction, we obtain, quite remarkably, quasi-universal behavior, for the normalized supe…
Zero-field and longitudinal-field muon-spin-relaxation measurements have been performed in partially Fe-substituted La2-xSrxCu1-yFeyO4 in a wide range of hole concentration, to investigate the magnetic state induced by the Fe substitution recently suggested from the neutron-scattering measurements [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 127002 (2011)]. It has been found that the magnetic transition temperature is notably enhanced through the 1% Fe substitution in a wide range of hole concentration where superconductivity appears in Fe-free La2-xSrxCuO4. In the underdoped regime, the Fe-induced magnetic order c…
The upper critical field $H_{c2}$ is one of the many non conventional properties of high-$T_c$ cuprates. It is possible that the $H_{c2}(T)$ anomalies are due to the presence of inhomogeneities in the local charge carrier density $ρ$ of the $CuO_2$ planes. In order to study this point, we have prepared good quality samples of polycrystalline $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_{4}$ using the wet-chemical method, which has demonstrated to produce samples with a better cation distribution. In particular, we have studied the temperature dependence of the second critical field, $H_{c2}(T)$, through the magnetization…
We show that low-energy spectral features in the cuprates can be separated into different components by the measurement of the recombination dynamics of different low-energy excitations in real-time using femtosecond laser spectroscopy. Quasiparticle (QP) recombination across the gap and intra-gap localized state relaxation processes exhibit qualitatively different time- and temperature-dependences. The relaxation measurements also show the existence of two distinct coexisting energy gaps near optimum doping and in the overdoped region, one more or less temperature independent (which exists ab…
We report on a study of the influence of defects introduced in the CuO$_{2}$ planes of cuprates in a wide range of hole dopings n. T$_{c}$ and electrical resistivity $ρ(T)$ measurements have been performed on electron irradiated YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-δ}$ and Tl$_{2}$Ba$_{2}$CuO$_{6+x}$ single crystals. A universal scaling between the decrease in T$_{c}$ and $\UNICODE[m]{0x394}ρ_{2D}\UNICODE[m]{0xd7}n$, where $\UNICODE[m]{0x394}ρ_{2D}$ is the increase of the 2D-resistance induced by the defects, is found for all the samples investigated here. This demonstrates that n is the relevant parameter …
Charge modulations are considered as a leading competitor of high-temperature superconductivity in the underdoped cuprates, and their relationship to Fermi surface reconstructions and to the pseudogap state is an important subject of current research. Overdoped cuprates, on the other hand, are widely regarded as conventional Fermi liquids without collective electronic order. For the overdoped (Bi,Pb)2.12Sr1.88CuO6+δ (Bi2201) high-temperature superconductor, here we report resonant x-ray scattering measurements revealing incommensurate charge order reflections, with correlation lengths of 40-60…
In the context of t-J model we show that in underdoped regime,beside the usual long wave length gauge field fluctuation, an additional low energy fluctuation, staggered gauge field fluctuation plays a crucial role in the evolution of Fermi surface(FS) as well as the line shape of spectral function for the cuprates. By including the staggered gauge field fluctuation we calculate the spectral function of the electrons by RPA(random phase approximation). The line shape of the spectral function near $(π,0)$ is very broad in underdoped case and is quite sharp in overdoped case. For the spectral fun…
Low temperature specific heat, C, in magnetic fields up to Hc2 is reported for underdoped Ba(Fe0.955Co0.045)2As2 (Tc=8 K) and for three overdoped samples Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 (x=0.103, 0.13, and 0.15, Tc=17.2, 16.5, and 11.7 K respectively). Previous measurements of thermal conductivity (as a function of temperature and field) and penetration depth on comparable composition samples gave some disagreement as to whether there was fully gapped/nodal behavior in the under-/overdoped materials respectively. The present work shows that the measured behavior of the specific heat gamma (proportional to C/…
We analyzed photoemssion data for several doping levels of the Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+x} compounds, ranging from overdoped to underdoped. We show that the high frequency part of the spectra near (0,π) can be described by Fermi liquid theory in the overdoped regime, but exhibits a non-Fermi liquid behavior in the underdoped regime. We further demonstrate that this novel behavior fits reasonably well to a 1/\sqrtω behavior suggested for systems with strong spin fluctuations.
In the present work, we report the new findings on the doping level dependence of the phase coherence between superconducting Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ (Bi-2212) grains. The experimental results from the strongly underdoped and overdoped regimes deviated from the expectation based on the doping level dependence of the superfluid density at $T$ = 0 K. These findings appear to be governed by interplay between competing orders inside the superconducting dome of cuprate superconductors. Two quantum critical points are likely to exist at the underdoped and overdoped regimes beneath the supercon…
Using muon spin rotation and infrared spectroscopy we study the relation between magnetism and superconductivity in Ba$ _{1-x} $K$ _{x} $Fe$ _{2} $As$ _{2} $ single crystals from the underdoped to the slightly overdoped regime. We find that the Fe magnetic moment is only moderately suppressed in most of the underdoped region where it decreases more slowly than the Néel-temperature, $ T^{\mathrm{N}} $. This applies for both the total Fe moment obtained from muon spin rotation and for the itinerant component that is deduced from the spectral weight of the spin-density-wave pair breaking peak in …
Self-consistent calculation of spin (charge) density wave order (SDW/CDW) parameters have been performed for bilayered cuprates on the basis of a singlet correlated band model. Evolution of the Fermi surface in the strongly underdoped regime is described by using a two-band approach. The smooth development of the pseudogap formation temperature is explained from underdoped to overdoped states and the Fourier amplitudes <s_q> (spin) and <e_q> (charge) modulations have been calculated. We have found a maximum of the incommensurability for doping 0.09-0.11 holes per copper site.
Following a recent study by our group in which a large $T_c$ enhancement was reported in bilayers of the non-superconducting $La_{1.65}Sr_{0.35}CuO_4$ and superconducting $La_{1.88}Sr_{0.12}CuO_4$ films [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{101}, 057005 (2008)], we checked if a similar effect occurs when superconducting $La_{1.88}Sr_{0.12}CuO_4$ islands are coated with a continuous layer of the non superconducting $La_{1.65}Sr_{0.35}CuO_4$. We found that no such phenomenon is observed. The bare superconducting islands film behaves as an insulator where transport occurs via hopping or tunneling between isl…
We show that the zero field normal-state resistivity above Tc for various levels of electron doping - both for LaO1-xFxFeAs (La-1111) and SmO1-xFxFeAs (Sm-1111) members of the 1111-iron-pnictide superconductor family - can be scaled in a broad temperature range from 20 to 300 K onto single curves for underdoped La-1111 (x=0.05-0.075), for optimally and overdoped La-1111 (x=0.1-0.2) and for underdoped Sm-1111 (x=0.06-0.1) compounds. The scaling was performed using the energy scale Δ, the resistivity ρ_Δ and the residual resistivity ρ_0 as scaling parameters as well as by applying a recently pro…
The pseudogap (PG) state and its related intra-unit-cell symmetry breaking remain the focus in the research of cuprate superconductors. Although the nematicity has been studied in Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$, especially underdoped samples, its behavior in other cuprates and different doping regions is still unclear. Here we apply a scanning tunneling microscope to explore an overdoped (Bi, Pb)$_2$Sr$_2$CuO$_{6+δ}$ with a large Fermi surface (FS). The establishment of a nematic order and its real-space distribution is visualized as the energy scale approaches the PG.
Despite twenty years of research, the phase diagram of high transition- temperature superconductors remains enigmatic. A central issue is the origin of the differences in the physical properties of these copper oxides doped to opposite sides of the superconducting region. In the overdoped regime, the material behaves as a reasonably conventional metal, with a large Fermi surface. The underdoped regime, however, is highly anomalous and appears to have no coherent Fermi surface, but only disconnected "Fermi arcs". The fundamental question, then, is whether underdoped copper oxides have a Fermi s…
In order to access the overdoped regime of the YBa_2Cu_3O_y phase diagram, 2% Ca is substituted for Y in YBa_2Cu_3O_y (y = 7.00,6.93,6.88,6.76). Raman scattering studies have been carried out on these four single crystals. Measurements of the superconductivity-induced renormalization in frequency (Delta ω) and linewidth (Δ2γ) of the 340 cm^{-1} B_{1g} phonon demonstrate that the magnitude of the renormalization is directly related to the hole concentration (p), and not simply the oxygen content. The changes in Δωwith p imply that the superconducting gap (Δ_{max}) decreases monotonically with i…
We calculate the diffusion thermoelectric power of high-Tc cuprates using the resonating-valence-bond spin-liquid model developed by Yang, Rice and Zhang (YRZ). In this model, reconstruction of the energy-momentum dispersion results in a pseudogap in the density of states that is heavily asymmetric about the Fermi level. The subsequent asymmetry in the spectral conductivity is found to account for the large magnitude and temperature dependence of the thermopower observed in underdoped cuprates. In addition we find evidence in experimental data for electron pockets in the Fermi surface, arising…
We have measured the electronic specific heat of $Y_{0.8}Ca_{0.2}Ba_2Cu_3O_{7-δ}$ using a high-resolution differential technique from liquid helium temperature to room temperature in an applied magnetic field up to 13T. The field dependence of the electronic specific heat at low temperatures in the superconducting state behaves differently in the overdoped and underdoped regimes, varing as $\sqrt{H}$ in the overdoped regime but as $H$ in the underdoped regime. An entropy loss is observed in the normal state in optimal and underdoped samples, which can be attributed to the opening of a normal s…
We report a systematic study of normal state Nernst effect in the electron-doped cuprates Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_{4-δ}$ over a wide range of doping (0.05$\leq x \leq$0.21) and temperature. At low temperatures, we observed a notable vortex Nernst signal above T$_c$ in the underdoped films, but no such normal state vortex Nernst signal is found in the overdoped region. The superconducting fluctuations in the underdoped region are most likely incoherent phase fluctuations as found in hole-doped cuprates. At high temperatures, a large normal state Nernst signal is found at dopings from slightly unde…
Theoretical attempts to explain the origin of high temperature superconductivity are challenged by the complexity of the normal state, which exhibits three regimes with increasing hole doping: a pseudo-gap regime when underdoped, strange power laws near optimal doping and more conventional metallic behavior when heavily overdoped. We suggest that the origin of this behavior is linked to a zero temperature quantum phase transition separating the overdoped Fermi liquid from a spin-charge separated underdoped phase. Central to our analysis is a new $Z_2$ gauge theory formulation, which supports t…
The effects of planar hole concentration, p, and in-plane disorder, Zn (y), on the DC resistivity, r(T), of sintered samples of Y_{1-x}Ca_xBa_2(Cu_{1-y}Zn_y)_3O_{7-d} were investigated over a wide doping range by changing both the oxygen deficiency (d) and Ca content (x). From the r(T,p) data we extracted characteristic crossover temperatures on the underdoped and overdoped sides, T* and T_m respectively, above which r(T) is linear. We compare our results with a number of other polycrystalline, thin film and single crystal cuprate superconductors and find similar behavior in the p-dependence o…
The superconducting transition temperature, Tc, of bilayers comprising underdoped La2-xSrxCuO4 films capped by a thin heavily overdoped metallic La1.65Sr0.35CuO4 layer, is found to increase with respect to Tc of the bare underdoped films. The highest Tc is achieved for x = 0.12, close to the 'anomalous' 1/8 doping level, and exceeds that of the optimally-doped bare film. Our data suggest that the enhanced superconductivity is confined to the interface between the layers. We attribute the effect to a combination of the high pairing scale in the underdoped layer with an enhanced phase stiffness …
We discuss the high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxide ceramics. We propose an effective Hamiltonian to describe the dynamics of electrons or holes injected into the copper oxide layers. We show that our approach is able to account for both the pseudogap and the superconductivity gap. For the hole-doped cuprates we discuss in details the underdoped, optimal doped, and overdoped regions of the phase diagram. In the underdoped region we determine the doping dependence of the upper critical magnetic field, the vortex region, and the discrete states bounded to the core of isolated vorti…
The electronic properties of multilayers of strongly correlated models for cuprate superconductors are investigated using cluster dynamical mean-field techniques. We focus on combinations of underdoped and overdoped layers and find that the superconducting order parameter in the overdoped layers is enhanced by the proximity effect of the strong pairing scale originating from the underdoped layers. The enhanced order parameter can even exceed the maximum value in uniform systems. This behavior is well reproduced in slave-boson mean-field calculations which also find higher transition temperatur…
The ab plane optical spectra of two single crystals of La(2-x)Sr(x)Cu(4), one overdoped and one underdoped, were investigated. We observe a gap-like depression of the effective scattering rate below 700 cm(-1) in both systems. This feature persists up to 300 K in the underdoped sample with the concentration of Sr x=0.14 but loses prominance at temperatures above 300 K in the overdoped regime (x=0.22). Below 700 cm(-1) the scattering rate is temperature dependent and superlinear in frequency for both samples. Above this frequency the effective scattering rate becomes linear in frequency and is …
We calculate the c-axis infrared conductivity $σ_c(ω)$ in underdoped cuprate superconductors for spinfluctuation exchange scattering within the CuO$_2$-planes including a phenomenological d-wave pseudogap of amplitude $E_g$. For temperatures decreasing below a temperature $T^* \sim E_g/2$, a gap for $ω< 2E_g$ develops in $σ_c(ω)$ in the incoherent (diffuse) transmission limit. The resistivity shows 'semiconducting' behavior, i.e. it increases for low temperatures above the constant behavior for $E_g=0$. We find that the pseudogap structure in the in-plane optical conductivity is about twice as…
In-plane resistivity measurements as a function of temperature and magnetic field up to 35~T with precise orientation within the crystallographic $ac-$plane were used to study the upper critical field, $H_{c2}$, of the hole-doped iron-based superconductor Ba$_{1-x}$K$_x$Fe$_2$As$_2$. Compositions of the samples studied were spanning from underdoped $x=$0.17 ($T_c$=12~K) and $x$=0.22 ($T_c$=20~K), both in the coexistence range of stripe magnetism and superconductivity, though optimal doping $x$=0.39 ($T_c$=38.4~K), $x$=0.47 ($T_c$=37.2~K), to overdoped $x$=0.65 ($T_c$=22~K), $x$=0.83 ($T_c$=10~…
In order to investigate the relationship between the so-called stripe correlations and the high-Tc superconductivity, we have carried out magnetic susceptibility and zero-field muon-spin-relaxation measurements in partially Fe-substituted La2-xSrxCu1-yFeyO4 (LSCFO). It has been found that the Fe substitution induces successive magnetic transitions in the overdoped regime, namely, a spin-glass transition of Fe3+ spins due to the RKKY interaction based on itinerant spins at higher temperatures and a stripe-order transition of localized Cu2+ spins at lower temperatures. The stripe-order transitio…
A large positive magnetoresistivity (up to tens of percents) is observed in both underdoped and overdoped superconducting La2-xSrxCuO4 epitaxial thin films at temperatures far above the superconducting critical temperature Tc. For the underdoped samples, this magnetoresistance far above Tc cannot be described by the Kohler rule and we believe it is to be attributed to the influence of superconducting fluctuations. In the underdoped regime, the large magnetoresistance is only present when at low temperatures superconductivity occurs. The strong magnetoresistivity, which persists even at tempera…
Based on an improved U(1) slave-boson approach to the t-J Hamiltonian, we invest igate a relationship between the superfluid weight $n_s/m^*$(the superconducting charge carrier density/the effective mass of the charge carrier) and the superc onducting temperature $T_c$. From the present study we find a linear increase of $n_s/m^*$ with $T_c$ with th e doping concentration in the underdoped region, a saturation around the optimal doping and a decrease in both $n_s/m^*$ and $T_c$ in the overdoped region. Such a trend of the `boomerang' shaped locus in $n_s/m^*$ vs. $T_c$ with increas ing doping …
The real part of the optical in-plane conductivity of p-- and n--type cuprates thin films at various doping levels was deduced from highly accurate reflectivity measurements. We present here a comprehensive set of optical spectral weight data as a function of the temperature $T (> T_c$), for underdoped and overdoped samples. The temperature dependence of the spectral weight is not universal. Using various cut-off frequencies for the spectral weight, we show that n--type Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ and p--type Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ exhibit both similarities and striking differences. The Fer…
Although more than twenty years have passed since the discovery of high temperature cuprate superconductivity, the identification of the superconducting order parameter is still under debate. Here, we show that the nodal gap component is the best candidate for the superconducting order parameter. It scales with the critical temperature $T_c$ over a wide doping range and displays a significant temperature dependence below $T_c$ in both the underdoped and the overdoped regimes of the phase diagram. In contrast, the antinodal gap component does not scale with $T_c$ in the underdoped side and appe…
We investigate the importance of superconducting order parameter fluctuations in the 122 family of Fe-based superconductors, using high-resolution specific heat and thermal expansion data of various Ba$_{1-x}$K$_x$Fe$_2$As$_2$ single crystals covering a large range of the phase diagram from the strongly underdoped to the overdoped regime. By applying scaling relations of the 3d-XY and the 3d-Lowest-Landau-Level (3d-LLL) fluctuation models to data measured in different magnetic fields, we demonstrate that a strong increase of the critical fluctuation regime is responsible for the transition bro…
We report the transverse relaxation rates 1/$T_2$'s of the $^{63}$Cu nuclear spin-echo envelope for double-layer high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors HgBa$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{6+d}$ from underdoped to overdoped. The relaxation rate 1/$T_{2L}$ of the exponential function (Lorentzian component) shows a peak at 220$-$240 K in the underdoped ($T_c$ = 103 K) and the optimally doped ($T_c$ = 127 K) samples but no peak in the overdoped ($T_c$ = 93 K) sample. The enhancement in 1/$T_{2L}$ suggests development of the zero frequency components of local field fluctuations. Ultraslow fluctuations are hidden i…
The evolution of low-energy spin dynamics in the iron-based superconductor LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ was studied over a broad doping, temperature, and magnetic field range (x = 0 - 0.15, T up to 480K, H up to 30T) by means of As nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). An enhanced spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by temperature, 1/T1T, in underdoped superconducting samples (x = 0.045, 0.05 and 0.075) suggests the presence of antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations, which are strongly reduced in optimally-doped (x = 0.10) and completely absent in overdoped (x = 0.15) samples. In contrast to previous analys…
Hall coefficient $R_H$ and thermoelectric power TEP are studied systematically in the single crystals $Nd_{2-x}Ce_xCuO_{4+δ}$ (NCCO) with different x from underdoped to overdoped regime. With increasing doping level, both $R_H$ and TEP decrease and change their sign from negative to positive. A striking feature is that the temperature dependence of the Hall angle follows a $T^4$ behavior in the underdoped regime, while a $T^2$ in the overdoped regime. These behaviors are closely related to the evolution of Fermi surface with doping level observed by ARPES.
Within the microscopic theory of the normal-state pseudogap state, the doping and temperature dependence of the charge dynamics in doped cuprates is studied in the whole doping range from the underdoped to heavily overdoped. The conductivity spectrum in the underdoped and optimally doped regimes contains the low-energy non-Drude peak and unusual midinfrared band. However, the position of the midinfrared band shifts towards to the low-energy non-Drude peak with increasing doping. In particular, the low-energy non-Drude peak incorporates with the midinfrared band in the heavily overdoped regime,…
Hall effect and quantum oscillation measurements on high temperature cuprate superconductors show that underdoped compositions have a small Fermi surface pocket whereas when heavily overdoped, the pocket increases dramatically in size. The origin of this change in electronic structure has been unclear, but may be related to the high temperature superconductivity. Here we show that the clean overdoped single-layer cuprate Tl2Ba2CuO6+x (Tl2201) displays CDW order with a remarkably long correlation length $ξ\approx 200$ Å which disappears above a hole concentration p_CDW ~ 0.265. We show that the…
The in-plane optical conductivity of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d thin films with small carrier density (underdoped) up to large carrier density (overdoped) is analyzed with unprecedented accuracy. Integrating the conductivity up to increasingly higher energies points to the energy scale involved when the superfluid condensate builds up. In the underdoped sample, states extending up to 2 eV contribute to the superfluid. This anomalously large energy scale may be assigned to a change of in-plane kinetic energy at the superconducting transition, and is compatible with an electronic pairing mechanism.
