Kinematic spin-fluctuation mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity

We study d-wave superconductivity in the extended Hubbard model in the strong correlation limit for a large intersite Coulomb repulsion V. We argue that in the Mott-Hubbard regime with two Hubbard subbands, there emerges a new energy scale for the spin-fluctuation coupling of electrons of the order of the electron kinetic energy W much larger than the exchange energy J. This coupling is induced by the kinematic interaction for the Hubbard operators, which results in the kinematic spin-fluctuation pairing mechanism for V ? W. The theory is based on the Mori projection technique in the equation of motion method for the Green’s functions in terms of the Hubbard operators. The doping dependence of the superconductivity temperature T _c is calculated for various values of U and V.     

Theory of superconductivity in strongly correlated materials: Application to cuprate superconductors

A microscopic theory of superconductivity in systems with strong electron correlations is considered within the Hubbard model. The Dyson equation for the matrix Green function in terms of the Hubbard operators is derived and solved in the noncrossing approximation for the self-energy. Two channels of superconducting pairing are revealed: mediated by antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchange and spin-fluctuations. It is proved that AFM exchange interaction results in pairing of all electrons in the conduction band and high T _c proportional to the Fermi energy. T _c dependence on lattice constants (or pressure) and an oxygen isotope shift of T _c are explained. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Coupling of electrons and phonons in a doped antiferromagnet

It is well-known that low-energy electronic excitations in high-T _c superconductors have energies of the order of the exchange couplingJ, i.e. of the same order as the phonon energies. Therefore, low-energy electronic excitations and phonons should strongly influence each other. To investigate this problem we consider a coupled electron-phonon system. For the electronic degrees of freedom we start from the three band Hubbard or Emery model. In analogy to the transformation of the three band Hubbard model to thet?J model, studied by Zhang and Rice, we derive an effective electron-phonon interaction. Its electronic degrees of freedom are those of thet?J model which couple to the phonons of the original system. The coupling of electrons and phonons is discussed by means of the phonon Green function for a breathing-like mode.     

Disorder effects in the BCS-BEC crossover region of the attractive Hubbard model

We study the disorder effects upon superconducting transition temperature T _c and the number of local pairs within the attractive Hubbard model in the combined Nozieres-Schmitt-Rink and DMFT + Σ approximations. We analyze the wide range of attractive interaction U, from the weak coupling region, where instability of the normal phase and superconductivity are well described by the BCS model, to the limit of strong coupling, where superconducting transition is determined by Bose-Einstein condensation of compact Cooper pairs, forming at temperatures much higher than superconducting transition temperature. It is shown that disorder can either suppress T _c in the weak coupling limit, or significantly enhance T _c in the case of strong coupling. However, in all cases we actually prove the validity of generalized Anderson theorem, so that all changes in T _c are related to change in the effective bandwidth due to disorder. Similarly, disorder effects on the number of local pairs are only due to these band-broadening effects.     

Strong coupling Hubbard model and superconductivity

We have shown that systems open to fermion number fluctuations and described by the Hubbard model can be superconducting. This superconductivity must be accompanied by a special type of magnetic order. A unitary transformation is explicitly constructed by which the large interaction term of the Hubbard model is exactly diagonalized. Order parameters of the system related to Green functions of fermions are explicitly evaluated in the strong coupling limit. This model applied to copper-oxygen chains provides a theoretical explanation of highT _c superconductivity in compounds of the type YBa₂Cu₃O_7–x .Dedicated to Academician Václav Votruba on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.     

Antiferromagnetic exchange mechanism of superconductivity in cuprates

The theory of superconducting pairing due to antiferromagnetic exchange is considered. The strong dependence of the superconducting transition temperature T _c on the lattice constant a observed recently in mercury superconductors is explained within the framework of this theory. Calculations have been performed based on the two-band p-d Hubbard model in the strong correlation limit. The large excitation energy Δ_pd for the antiferromagnetic exchange of two particles from different Hubbard subbands results in the suppression of the retardation effects and in the pairing of all the particles in the conduction subband with the Fermi energy E _F ?Δ_pd:T _c ?E _F exp(?1/λ), where λ∝J. The dependence T _c (a) and the isotope effect are explained by the dependence of the exchange interaction J on a and on zero-point vibrations of oxygen ions.     

Filling dependence of correlation exponents and metal-Mott insulator transition in strongly correlated electron systems

Using a universal relation between electron filling factor and ground state energy,this paper studies the dependence of correlation exponents on the electron filling factor of one-dimensional extended Hubbard model in a strong coupling regime,and demonstrates that in contrast to the usual Hubbard model(gc = 1/2),the dimensionless coupling strength parameter g c heavily depends on the electron filling,and it has a "particle-hole" symmetry about electron quarter filling point.As increasing the nearest neighbouring repulsive interaction,the single particle spectral weight is transferred from low energy to high energy regimes.Moreover,at electron quarter filling,there is a metal-Mott insulator transition at the strong coupling point gc = 1/4,and this transition is a continuous phase transition.     

Studies of chemical diffusion in La1-X SrXCoO3-δ

Recent investigations of superconductivity in carbon nanotubes have shown that a single-wall zig-zag nanotube can become superconducting at around 15?K. Theoretical studies of superconductivity in nanotubes using the traditional phonon exchange model, however, give a superconducting transition temperature T _c less than 1?K. To explain the observed higher critical temperature we explore the possibility of the plasmon exchange mechanism for superconductivity in nanotubes. We first calculate the effective interaction between electrons in a nanotube mediated by plasmon exchange and show that this interaction can become attractive. Using this attractive interaction in the modified Eliashberg theory for strong coupling superconductors, we then calculate the critical temperature T _c in a single-wall nanotube. Our theoretical results can explain the observed T _c in a single-wall nanotube. In particular, we find that T _c is sensitively dependent on the dielectric constant of the medium, the effective mass of the electrons and the radius of the nanotube. We then consider superconductivity in a bundle of single-wall nanotubes and find that bundling of nanotubes does not change the critical temperature significantly. Going beyond carbon nanotubes we show that in a metallic hollow nanowire T _c has some sort of oscillatory behaviour as a function of the surface number density of electrons.     

Correlation mediated superconductivity in a “HighT c ” model

We present a simple model to account for the High-T _c perovskite superconductors. The superconducting mechanism is purely electronic and comes from local Hubbard correlations. The model comprises a Hubbard model for the Copper sites with a single particle Oxygen band between the two Copper Hubbard bands. The electrons move only between nearest neighbour atoms which are of different types. Using two very different approximation schemes, one related to Slave-Boson mean field theory and the other based on an exact local Fermion transformation, we show the possibility of Copper-Oxygen or a mixture of Copper-Oxygen and Oxygen-Oxygen pairing. We believe that the most promising situation for superconductivity is with the Oxygen band over half-filled and closer in energy to the lower Hubbard band.     

A simple theory for high Δ T c ratio in d-wave superconductors

We investigate a simple explanation for the high maximum gap to T _c ratio found experimentally in high T _c compounds. We ascribe this observation to the lowering of T _c by boson scattering of electrons between parts of the Fermi surface with opposite sign for the order parameter. We study the simplest possible model within this picture. Our quantitative results show that we can account for experiment for a rather small value of the coupling constant, all the other ingredients of our model being already known to exist in these compounds. A striking implication of this theory is the fairly high value of the critical temperature in the absence of boson scattering. Received 12 March 2001 and Received in final form 25 May 2001     

d-Wave superconductivity from correlated-hopping interactions determined by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

Starting from a generalized Hubbard model with correlated-hopping interactions, we solve numerically two coupled integral equations within the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer formalism, in order to study the doping effects on the critical temperature (_Tc$T_c$), d-wave superconducting gap, and the electronic specific heat. Within the mean-field approximation, we determine the single- and correlated-electron-hopping parameters for La_2 − xSr_xCuO₄ by using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy data. The resulting parametrized Hubbard model is able to explain the experimental _Tc$T_c$ variation with the doping level (x). Moreover, the observed power-law behavior of the superconducting specific heat is reproduced by this correlated-hopping Hubbard model without adjustable parameters.     

Bipolaronic excitations of interacting electron(hole) gas in one-dimensional lattice model

By developing a diagonalization scheme we observe that the dynamics of interacting electrons or holes locally coupled to dispersionless phonon mode in one-dimensional lattice can be mapped into that of paired electron or hole states (bipolaronic states), which then gives a physically appealing picture of excitation modes of the interacting electron or hole gas. As a result, the bipolaronic model of the interacting electron or hole gas, obtained from Holstein–Hubbard Hamiltonian in one-dimensional lattice, exhibits normalization of the hopping terms and leads to a reduced effective mass of the bipolaron, which essentially gives support to the bipolaronic theory of high T_c superconductivity.     

Local anharmonic vibrations strong correlations and superconductivity: A quantum simulation study

We investigate the importance of local anharmonic vibrations of the bridging oxygen in the copper oxide high-T _c materials in the context of superconductivity. For the numerical simulation we employ the projector quantum Monte Carlo method to study the ground state properties of the coupled electron-phonon system. The quantum Monte Carlo simulation allows an accurate treatment of electronic interactions which investigates the influence of strong correlations on superconductivity mediated by additional quantum degrees of freedom. As a generic model for such a system, we study the two-dimensional single band Hubbard model coupled to local pseudo spins (bridging oxygen), which mediate an effective attractive electron-electron interaction leading to superconductivity. The results are compared to those of an effective negativeU model.     

Correlated pairs in the attractive Hubbard model

The attractive Hubbard Model is considered in the strong coupling limits (U?t) by treating the hopping integral, t, as a perturbation. A phase diagram emerges with two critical temperatures: itk_BitT_ct²/U and itk_BT_UU/4. For T<T_c, there is regime of strongly correlated pairs reminescent of superconductivity. For T_c<T<T_U, there is a domain of uncorrelated pairs. For T>T_U, one has a normal metal.     

Ground state of spin liquids,hole-hole attraction and high-T csuperconductivity

We develop a notion of high-T _csuperconductivity, which considers that phenomenon as a general property of close to half-filled bands of strongly correlated electrons confined to low-dimensional orbital lattices. Based on Andersons suggestion [1] we initially investigate the Cud electron system of the undoped mother substances of the high-T _c superconductors in the framework of the spin 1/2 Heisenberg model. We derive a new representation of the corresponding Hamiltonian in terms of triplet quasi-particles. The triplet representation leads to simple physical pictures for the spin liquid state and to a hierarchy of nearly exact variational wave functions for the ground state of the linear chain. These wave functions are employed as vacuum states for doping with holes. Holes are shown to form a conduction band embedded in the Hubbard-Mott insulating phase of strongly correlated electrons. The chemical binding forces among these localized electrons entail a strong attractive pair potential acting between the mobile defects. The generality of the hole-hole attraction and its independence of a strict localization of the electrons in the Hubbard-Mott phase is demonstrated by nearly exact solutions of the Hubbard and Pariser-Parr-Pople models of small regular electron chains at various degrees of electron correlation. It is suggested that this exchange-driven attraction leads to an instability of the free hole gas towards Cooper pair formation.     

On the theory of superconductivity in the extended Hubbard model

A microscopic theory of superconductivity in the extended Hubbard model which takes into account the intersite Coulomb repulsion and electron-phonon interaction is developed in the limit of strong correlations. The Dyson equation for normal and pair Green functions expressed in terms of the Hubbard operators is derived. The self-energy is obtained in the noncrossing approximation. In the normal state, antiferromagnetic short-range correlations result in the electronic spectrum with a narrow bandwidth. We calculate superconducting T _c by taking into account the pairing mediated by charge and spin fluctuations and phonons. We found the d-wave pairing with high-T _c mediated by spin fluctuations induced by the strong kinematic interaction for the Hubbard operators. Contributions to the d-wave pairing coming from the intersite Coulomb repulsion and phonons turned out to be small.     

The influence of phonons on quantum diffusion in superconductors

The hopping motion of charged light particles coupled to superconducting electrons as well as to phonons is investigated within the framework of a two-state model. Sufficiently far below the transition temperatureT _c the hopping rate is dominated by one-phonon processes if the static energy shifts between the particle ground states are finite but smaller than twice the BCS energy gap. In the opposite limit of large energy asymmetries phonon coupling does not crucially influence the jump rates. The rôle of nonlinear lattice coupling is investigated.     

Superconducting pairing in the singlet band of the Emery model

The pairing due to electron-phonon and exchange interaction in the two-band Emery model is considered. The Emery model is reduced to an effective singlet-triplet problem. The Eliashberg-equations are formulated in terms of Hubbard operators for the singlet band. The dependence of the critical temperatureT _c on the number of holesn in the doped CuO₂ plane has been calculated. The electron-phonon coupling gives rise to s-wave pairing with a maximum inT _c atn1.2. It corresponds to a maximum in the density of states for a doping value ofn=1.24. The anisotropic electron-electron coupling due to the exchange interaction produces extended s-wave pairing with a maximum atn1.05 and d-wave pairing with a maximum atn1.2.