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Arpaia R, Martinelli L, Sala MM, Caprara S, Nag A, Brookes NB, Camisa P, Li Q, Gao Q, Zhou X, Garcia-Fernandez M, Zhou KJ, Schierle E, Bauch T, Peng YY, Di Castro C, Grilli M, Lombardi F, Braicovich L, Ghiringhelli G. Signature of quantum criticality in cuprates by charge density fluctuations. Nat Commun 2023; 14:7198. [PMID: 37938250 PMCID: PMC10632404 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42961-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The universality of the strange metal phase in many quantum materials is often attributed to the presence of a quantum critical point (QCP), a zero-temperature phase transition ruled by quantum fluctuations. In cuprates, where superconductivity hinders direct QCP observation, indirect evidence comes from the identification of fluctuations compatible with the strange metal phase. Here we show that the recently discovered charge density fluctuations (CDF) possess the right properties to be associated to a quantum phase transition. Using resonant x-ray scattering, we studied the CDF in two families of cuprate superconductors across a wide doping range (up to p = 0.22). At p* ≈ 0.19, the putative QCP, the CDF intensity peaks, and the characteristic energy Δ is minimum, marking a wedge-shaped region in the phase diagram indicative of a quantum critical behavior, albeit with anomalies. These findings strengthen the role of charge order in explaining strange metal phenomenology and provide insights into high-temperature superconductivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riccardo Arpaia
- Quantum Device Physics Laboratory, Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296, Göteborg, Sweden.
| | - Leonardo Martinelli
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133, Milano, Italy
| | - Marco Moretti Sala
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133, Milano, Italy
| | - Sergio Caprara
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza", P.le Aldo Moro 5, I-00185, Roma, Italy
- CNR-ISC, via dei Taurini 19, I-00185, Roma, Italy
| | - Abhishek Nag
- Diamond Light Source, Harwell Campus, Didcot, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom
| | - Nicholas B Brookes
- ESRF, The European Synchrotron, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, F-38000, Grenoble, France
| | - Pietro Camisa
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133, Milano, Italy
| | - Qizhi Li
- International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, CN-100871, Beijing, China
| | - Qiang Gao
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CN-100190, Beijing, China
| | - Xingjiang Zhou
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CN-100190, Beijing, China
| | | | - Ke-Jin Zhou
- Diamond Light Source, Harwell Campus, Didcot, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom
| | - Enrico Schierle
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Albert-Einstein-Straße 15, D-12489, Berlin, Germany
| | - Thilo Bauch
- Quantum Device Physics Laboratory, Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296, Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Ying Ying Peng
- International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, CN-100871, Beijing, China
| | - Carlo Di Castro
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza", P.le Aldo Moro 5, I-00185, Roma, Italy
| | - Marco Grilli
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza", P.le Aldo Moro 5, I-00185, Roma, Italy
- CNR-ISC, via dei Taurini 19, I-00185, Roma, Italy
| | - Floriana Lombardi
- Quantum Device Physics Laboratory, Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296, Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Lucio Braicovich
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133, Milano, Italy
- ESRF, The European Synchrotron, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, F-38000, Grenoble, France
| | - Giacomo Ghiringhelli
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133, Milano, Italy.
- CNR-SPIN, Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133, Milano, Italy.
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Li Z, Sang L, Liu P, Yue Z, Fuhrer MS, Xue Q, Wang X. Atomically Thin Superconductors. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2021; 17:e1904788. [PMID: 32363776 DOI: 10.1002/smll.201904788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2019] [Revised: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 03/04/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, atomically thin superconductors, including atomically thin elemental superconductors, single layer FeSe films, and few-layer cuprate superconductors, have been studied extensively. This hot research field is mainly driven by the discovery of significant superconductivity enhancement and high-temperature interface superconductivity in single-layer FeSe films epitaxially grown on SrTiO3 substrates in 2012. This study has attracted tremendous research interest and generated more studies focusing on further enhancing superconductivity and finding the origin of the superconductivity. A few years later, research on atomically thin superconductors has extended to cuprate superconductors, unveiling many intriguing properties that have neither been proposed or observed previously. These new discoveries challenge the current theory regarding the superconducting mechanism of unconventional superconductors and indicate new directions on how to achieve high-transition-temperature superconductors. Herein, this exciting recent progress is briefly discussed, with a focus on the recent progress in identifying new atomically thin superconductors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi Li
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM), Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
| | - Lina Sang
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM), Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
| | - Peng Liu
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM), Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
| | - Zengji Yue
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM), Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
| | - Michael S Fuhrer
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Victoria, 3800, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET), Monash University, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - Qikun Xue
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing, 100871, China
- State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Xiaolin Wang
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
- Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM), Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2525, Australia
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Schneider T, Weyeneth S. Quantum superconductor-insulator transition: implications of BKT critical behavior. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2013; 25:305701. [PMID: 23824507 DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/25/30/305701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
We explore the implications of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) critical behavior on the two-dimensional (2D) quantum superconductor-insulator (QSI) transition driven by the tuning parameter x. Concentrating on the sheet resistance R(x,T) BKT behavior implies: an explicit quantum scaling function for R(x,T) along the superconducting branch ending at the nonuniversal critical value Rc = R(xc); a BKT-transition line T(c)(x) [proportionality] (x - x(c))(zν[overline]), where z is the dynamic exponent and ν[overline] the exponent of the zero-temperature correlation length; independent estimates of zν[overline], z and ν[overline] from the x dependence of the nonuniversal parameters entering the BKT expression for the sheet resistance. To illustrate the potential and the implications of this scenario we analyze the data of Bollinger et al (2011 Nature 472 458) taken on gate voltage tuned epitaxial films of La2-xSrxCuO4 that are one unit cell in thickness. The resulting estimates, z ~/= 3.1 and ν[overline] ~/= 0.52, indicate a clean 2D-QSI critical point where hyperscaling, the proportionality between d/λ(2)(0) and Tc, and the correspondence between the quantum phase transitions in D dimensions and the classical ones in (D + z) dimensions are violated.
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Affiliation(s)
- T Schneider
- Physik-Institut der Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
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Galanakis D, Khatami E, Mikelsons K, Macridin A, Moreno J, Browne DA, Jarrell M. Quantum criticality and incipient phase separation in the thermodynamic properties of the Hubbard model. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2011; 369:1670-1686. [PMID: 21422020 DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2010.0228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Transport measurements on the cuprates suggest the presence of a quantum critical point (QCP) hiding underneath the superconducting dome near optimal hole doping. We provide numerical evidence in support of this scenario via a dynamical cluster quantum Monte Carlo study of the extended two-dimensional Hubbard model. Single-particle quantities, such as the spectral function, the quasi-particle weight and the entropy, display a crossover between two distinct ground states: a Fermi liquid at low filling and a non-Fermi liquid with a pseudo-gap at high filling. Both states are found to cross over to a marginal Fermi-liquid state at higher temperatures. For finite next-nearest-neighbour hopping t', we find a classical critical point at temperature T(c). This classical critical point is found to be associated with a phase-separation transition between a compressible Mott gas and an incompressible Mott liquid corresponding to the Fermi liquid and the pseudo-gap state, respectively. Since the critical temperature T(c) extrapolates to zero as t' vanishes, we conclude that a QCP connects the Fermi liquid to the pseudo-gap region, and that the marginal Fermi-liquid behaviour in its vicinity is the analogue of the supercritical region in the liquid-gas transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Galanakis
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LO 70803, USA.
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Sonier JE. High-field μSR studies of superconducting and magnetic correlations in cuprates above T(c). JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2010; 22:203202. [PMID: 21393701 DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/22/20/203202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
The advent of high transverse field muon spin rotation (TF-μSR) has led to recent μSR investigations of the magnetic field response of cuprates above the superconducting transition temperature T(c). Here the results of such experiments on hole-doped cuprates are reviewed. Although these investigations are currently ongoing, it is clear that the effects of high field on the internal magnetic field distribution of these materials is dependent upon competition between superconductivity and magnetism. In La(2 - x)Sr(x)CuO(4) the response to the external field above T(c) is dominated by heterogeneous spin magnetism. However, the magnetism that dominates the observed inhomogeneous line broadening below x ∼ 0.19 is overwhelmed by the emergence of a completely different kind of magnetism in the heavily overdoped regime. The origin of the magnetism above x ∼ 0.19 is probably related to intrinsic disorder, but the systematic evolution of the magnetism with doping changes in the doping range beyond the superconducting 'dome'. In contrast, the width of the internal field distribution of underdoped Y Ba(2)Cu(3)O(y) above T(c) is observed to track T(c) and the density of superconducting carriers. This observation suggests that the magnetic response above T(c) is not dominated by electronic moments, but rather inhomogeneous fluctuating superconductivity. The spatially inhomogeneous response of Y Ba(2)Cu(3)O(y) to the applied field may be a means of minimizing energy, rather than being caused by intrinsic disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- J E Sonier
- Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada.
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Liang R, Bonn DA, Hardy WN, Broun D. Lower critical field and superfluid density of highly underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x single crystals. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2005; 94:117001. [PMID: 15903882 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.94.117001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2004] [Indexed: 05/02/2023]
Abstract
The lower critical field H(c1) for highly underdoped YBa2Cu3O(6+x) with T(c) between 8.9 and 22 K has been determined by measurements of magnetization M(H) curves with applied field parallel to the c axis. H(c1) is linear in temperatures below about 0.6T(c), and H(c1)(0) is proportional to T(1.64+/-0.04)(c), clearly violating the proportionality between rho(s)(0) and T(c). Moreover, the slope -dH(c1)/dT decreases steeply toward zero as T(c) approaches zero, indicating that the effective charge of the quasiparticles vanishes as the doping is decreased toward the insulating phase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruixing Liang
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z1
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Trunin MR, Nefyodov YA, Shevchun AF. Superfluid density in the underdoped YBa2Cu3O7-x: evidence for d-density-wave order of the pseudogap. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2004; 92:067006. [PMID: 14995267 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.92.067006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2003] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
The investigation of the penetration depth lambda(ab)(T,p) in YBa2Cu3O7-x crystals allowed one to observe the following features of the superfluid density n(s)(T,p) proportional, variant lambda(-2)(ab)(T,p) as a function of temperature T<T(c)/2 and carrier concentration 0.078< or p < or = 0.16 in CuO2 planes: (i) n(s)(0,p) depends linearly on p; (ii) the derivative absolute value of dn(s)(T,p)/dT (T-->0) depends on p slightly in the optimally and moderately doped regions (0.10<p< or =0.16), however, it rapidly increases with p further lowering; (iii) the latter finding is accompanied by the linear low-temperature dependence [-Delta n(s)(T)] proportional, variant T changing to [-Delta n(s)(T)] proportional, square root of T. All these peculiarities can be treated in the framework of the d-density-wave scenario of electronic processes in underdoped high-T(c) materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- M R Trunin
- Institute of Solid State Physics RAS, 142432 Chernogolovka, Moscow District, Russia
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