Skyrmion-approach study of the magnetic properties and spin kinetics of weakly doped cuprates

The evolution of the magnetic and kinetic properties of quasi-two-dimensional cuprates has been studied upon doping CuO₂ planes with electron holes. The notion of thermal skyrmions and hole-induced skyrmions was used to determine the spin-correlation length and nuclear relaxation rate as functions of temperature and hole concentration.     

Effects of in-plane oxygens on the magnetic response in cuprates

A brief analysis of ARPES, Raman, and neutron data is used to show the importance of the oxygen degree of freedom for the metallic phase of cuprate high-T_c superconductors. It is based on published results and a number of new calculations, relevant to Raman and neutron scattering in the metallic underdoped and optimally doped regime. They are placed in the context of a recently developed theoretical understanding of the microscopic interplay between metallicity and local valence-bond fluctuations in the cuprates. It is argued that the oxygen degree of freedom is dominantly responsible for the metallicity in the normal state. The coexistence of metallic oxygen-dominated states with localized copper-dominated states is a key experimental constraint on the microscopic understanding of the normal-state pseudogap proposed here, especially of its strong k-dependence.     

Multigap superconductivity in doped p-type cuprates

Andreev and tunneling spectroscopy studies of Bi₂Sr₂Ca _{n ? 1}Cu _n O_{2n + 4 + δ}, HgBa₂Ca _{n ? 1}Cu _n O_{2n + 2 + δ} and Tl₂Ba₂Ca _{n ? 1}Cu_{2n + 4 + δ} have shown that superconductivity in single-layer (n = 1) and two-layer (n = 2) phases has a single-gap character. Qualitatively different results were obtained for three-layer phases. In doped p-type Hg-1223, Bi-2223, and Tl-2223 samples two (or three) superconducting gaps were observed. The existence of multigap superconductivity in superconducting cuprates with n ≥ 3 is explained by a difference in doping levels of outer (OP) and internal (IP) CuO₂ planes.     

Scaling of the magnetic response in doped antiferromagnets

A theory of the anomalous omega/T scaling of the dynamic magnetic response in cuprates at low doping is presented. It is based on the memory function representation of the dynamical spin susceptibility in a doped antiferromagnet where the damping of the collective mode is constant and large, whereas the equal-time spin correlations saturate at low T. Exact diagonalization results within the t-J model are shown to support assumptions. Consequences, for both the scaling function and the normalization amplitude, are well in agreement with neutron scattering results.     

Terahertz phonon spectroscopy of doped superconducting cuprates

Facts are presented evidencing a strong electron-phonon interaction in doped BSCCO superconductors. A pronounced fine structure in dI/dV characteristics of Josephson junctions has been observed which is caused by interaction of AC Josephson current with Raman-active optical phonon modes. “Quantization” of the “gap” voltage for natural nanosteps on the cryogenically cleaved surfaces of BSCCO proves the existence of the intrinsic Josephson effect. A sharp extra structure in the current-voltage characteristics of nanosteps is attributed to the presence of the extended van Hove singularity.     

Influence of a magnetic field on the electronic Raman response in high-Tc cuprates

The effect of a magnetic field parallel to the CuO₂ plane on the Raman spectra is investigated based on the Slave–Boson approach to the t − t′ − J model with a Zeeman field and the random-phase approximation. We find that the Raman spectra intensities in the superconducting (SC) state are suppressed for both the B_1g and the B_2g channels with a slight shift of the peaks position toward lower frequency in the B_1g channel and a negligible shift in the B_2g channel due to the Zeeman splitting. There is a field-induced peak and dip structure at low energy response in the B_2g channel at very low temperature. While rising temperature has a similar effect in reducing the Raman response peak in the superconducting (SC) state, it smears out the field-induced peak and dip structure in the B_2g channel. We compare these results with experiments and give explanations based on the field-induced changes of the density of the superconducting condensate, the momentum distribution of the quasiparticle energy and the scattering rate.     

Momentum-structure of remnant Mott-gap in prototype hole doped cuprates

Momentum dependent charge excitation of 2D cuprate class La_2−xSr_xCuO₄ with different hole-doping levels (x) is measured using high resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering. Although a low-energy continuum is built up with doping, a remnant excitation gap behavior continues to exist even in highly doped metallic phase which we have studied in some detail. The excitation of the Mott gap becomes less dispersive with the increase of doping level and suggests a many-body coupling between charge fluctuation and magnetic character of the lattice. The results can be described within the framework of t-t′-t″-U model.     

Gap and pseudogap evolution within the charge-ordering scenario for superconducting cuprates

We describe the spectral properties of underdoped cuprates as resulting from a momentum-dependent pseudogap in the normal-state spectrum. Such a model accounts, within a BCS approach, for the doping dependence of the critical temperature and for the two-parameter leading-edge shift observed in the cuprates. By introducing a phenomenological temperature dependence of the pseudogap, which finds a natural interpretation within the stripe quantum-critical-point scenario for high- superconductors, we reproduce also the bifurcation near optimum doping. Finally, we briefly discuss the different role of the gap and the pseudogap in determining the spectral and thermodynamical properties of the model at low temperatures. Received 17 February 2000     

Mott gap excitations and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in doped cuprates

Predictions are made for the momentum- and carrier-dependent degradation of the Mott gap upon doping in high-T(c) cuprates as would be observed in Cu K-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS). The two-dimensional Hubbard model with second- and third-nearest-neighbor hopping terms has been studied by numerical exact diagonalization. Special emphasis is placed on the particle-hole asymmetry of the Mott gap excitations. We argue that the Mott gap excitations observed by RIXS are significantly influenced by the interaction between charge carriers and antiferromagnetic correlations.     

Spectral properties of doped bilayer cuprates at finite temperatures

Recently, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements on Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δ, which possesses two CuO₂ layers in the same unit cell, have yielded very interesting results. For the overdoped samples, these results show a splitting of electronic states near k=(π, 0) point of Brillioun zone. On the other hand, no splitting is observed in the underdoped samples. In view of this, the detailed studies including the doping and temperature dependence of the spectral properties become desirable. In this paper, we consider cuprates possessing two CuO₂ layers per unit cell. Each layer in the system is described by the t-t ¹-J model and the two layers are coupled via an intrabilayer hopping term (t _⊥) and an intrabilayer exchange coupling (J _⊥). A self-consistent perturbation approach is used to calculate the electronic spectral function for different values of hole density, hole momentum and temperature. We find that the imaginary part of the self energy is strongly momentum dependent which contradicts the suggestion that the Fermi surface of cuprates may be described by marginal Fermi liquid theory. We have calculated the spectral function for various values of intrabilayer parameters t _⊥ and J _⊥. For larger values of intrabilayer interactions we observe the splitting in the quasi-particle peak at k=(π, 0) which is in agreement with the recent observations. The splitting is also found to be sensitive to the hole concentration as well as the temperature of the system. We have also discussed the reasons why the splitting is absent in underdoped bilayer cuprates at low temperature.     

Magnetic response of nonmagnetic impurities in cuprates

A theory of the local magnetic response of a nonmagnetic impurity in a doped antiferromagnet, as relevant to the normal-state in cuprates, is presented. It is based on the assumption of the overdamped collective mode in the bulk system and on the evidence that equal-time spin correlations are only weakly renormalized in the vicinity of the impurity. The theory relates the Kondo-like behavior of the local susceptibility to the anomalous temperature dependence of the bulk magnetic susceptibility.     

Dark energy accretion onto black holes in a cosmic scenario

In this paper we study the accretion of dark energy onto a black hole in the cases that dark energy is equipped with a positive cosmological constant and when the space-time is described by a Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric. While the first case is the same as the usual accretion procedure for a more complicated fluid, the second one give rise to a consistent cosmic scenario for the mentioned phenomenon.     

Interplay between the magnetic fluctuations and superconductivity in lanthanum cuprates

We report an analysis of the magnetic fluctuations in superconducting La_2?xSr_xCuO₄ and related lanthanum cuprates that have different symmetry of the low-temperature structure. NMR and ESR investigations revealed a dynamical coexistence of superconductivity and the antiferromagnetic correlations in most of the superconductivity region of the phase diagram. We show that, for all compounds, regardless of their low-temperature symmetry and their superconducting properties, the enhancement of the spin stiffness near 1/8 doping takes place.     

Metal-insulator crossover in superconducting cuprates in strong magnetic fields

The metal-insulator crossover of the in-plane resistivity upon temperature decrease, recently observed in several classes of cuprate superconductors, when a strong magnetic field suppresses the superconductivity, is explained using the U(1)xSU(2) Chern-Simons gauge field theory. The origin of this crossover is the same as that for a similar phenomenon observed in heavily underdoped cuprates without magnetic field. It is due to the interplay between the diffusive motion of the charge carriers and the "peculiar" localization effect due to short-range antiferromagnetic order. We also calculate the in-plane transverse magnetoresistance which is in fairly good agreement with available experimental data.