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Superconductivity in topological insulators is expected to show very unconventional features such as $p+ip$ order parameter, Majorana fermions etc. However, the intrinsic superconductivity has been observed in a very limited number of materials in which the pairing symmetry is still a matter of debate. Here, we study the topological crystalline insulator (Pb$_{1-x}$Sn$_x$)$_{1-y}$In$_y$Te, where a peculiar insulator to superconductor transition was previously reported near the gap inversion transition, when the system is nearly a 3-dimensional Dirac semimetal. Both the existence of superconductivity near the 3-dimensional Dirac semimetal and the occurrence of insulator to superconductor transition in an isotropic material is highly unusual. We suggest that the observed phenomena are related to an intrinsic instability of a 3-dimensional Dirac semimetal state in (Pb$_{1-x}$Sn$_x$)$_{1-y}$In$_y$Te and "flattening" of the bulk valence and conduction bands as they acquire a Mexican hat-like dispersion on the inverted side of the phase diagram. This favors the pairing instability if the chemical potential is pinned to these flat regions., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

In high-temperature cuprate superconductors, the anti-ferromagnetic spin fluctuations are thought to have a very important role in naturally producing an attractive interaction between the electrons in the $d$-wave channel. The connection between superconductivity and spin fluctuations is expected to be especially consequential at the overdoped end point of the superconducting dome. In some materials, that point seems to coincide with a Lifshitz transition, where the Fermi surface changes from the hole-like centered at ($\pi, \pi$) to the electron-like, centered at the $\Gamma$ point causing a loss of large momentum anti-ferromagnetic fluctuations. Here, we study the doping dependence of the electronic structure of Bi$_{1.8}$Pb$_{0.4}$Sr$_2$CuO$_{6+\delta}$ in angle-resolved photoemission and find that the superconductivity vanishes at lower doping than at which the Lifshitz transition occurs. This requires a more detailed re-examination of a spin-fluctuation scenario., Comment: 6 pages, 3 Figures, 1 Table

We report the temperature-dependent optical conductivity and ARPES studies of the iron-based superconductor (SC) Sr$_{0.67}$Na$_{0.33}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ in the high-temperature tetragonal paramagnetic phase; below the structural and magnetic transitions at $T_{\rm N}\simeq$125 K in the orthorhombic spin-density-wave (SDW)-like phase, and $T_r\simeq$42 K in the reentrant tetragonal double-Q magnetic phase where both charge and SDW order exist; and below the SC transition at $T_c\simeq$10 K. The free-carrier component in the optical conductivity is described by two Drude contributions; one strong and broad, the other weak and narrow. The broad Drude component decreases dramatically below $T_{\rm N}$ and $T_r$, with much of its strength being transferred to a bound excitation in the mid-infrared, while the narrow Drude component shows no anomalies at either of the transitions, actually increasing in strength at low temperature while narrowing dramatically. The behavior of an infrared-active mode suggests zone-folding below $T_r$. Below $T_c$ the dramatic decrease in the low-frequency optical conductivity signals the formation of a SC energy gap. ARPES reveals hole-like bands at the center of the Brillouin zone (BZ), with both electron- and hole-like bands at the corners. Below $T_{\rm N}$, the hole pockets at the center of the BZ decrease in size, consistent with the behavior of the broad Drude component; while below $T_r$ the electron-like bands shift and split, giving rise to a low-energy excitation in the optical conductivity at ~20 meV. The magnetic states, with resulting SDW and charge-SDW order, respectively, lead to a significant reconstruction of the Fermi surface that has profound implications for the transport originating from the electron and hole pockets, but appears to have relatively little impact on the SC in this material., Comment: 11 pages with 6 figures; 7 pages of supplementary material

The effects of structural supermodulation with the period $\lambda \approx26$ \AA \ along the $b$-axis of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ have been observed in photoemission studies from the early days as the presence of diffraction replicas of the intrinsic electronic structure. Although predicted to affect the electronic structure of the Cu-O plane, the influence of supermodulation potential on Cu-O electrons has never been observed in photoemission. In the present study, we clearly see, for the first time, the effects on the Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ electronic structure - we observe a hybridization of the intrinsic bands with the supermodulation replica bands in the form of avoided crossings and a corresponding reconstruction of the Fermi surface. We estimate the hybridization gap, $2\Delta_h\sim25$ meV in the slightly underdoped samples. The hybridization weakens with doping and the anti-crossing can no longer be resolved in strongly overdoped samples. In contrast, the shadow replica, shifted by $(\pi, \pi)$, is found not to hybridize with the original bands within our detection limits., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

In cuprate superconductors, the doping of carriers into the parent Mott insulator induces superconductivity and various other phases whose characteristic temperatures are typically plotted versus the doping level $p$. In most materials, $p$ cannot be determined from the chemical composition, but it is derived from the superconducting transition temperature, $T_\mathrm{c}$, using the assumption that $T_\mathrm{c}$ dependence on doping is universal. Here, we present angle-resolved photoemission studies of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$, cleaved and annealed in vacuum or in ozone to reduce or increase the doping from the initial value corresponding to $T_\mathrm{c}=91$ K. We show that $p$ can be determined from the underlying Fermi surfaces and that $in-situ$ annealing allows mapping of a wide doping regime, covering the superconducting dome and the non-superconducting phase on the overdoped side. Our results show a surprisingly smooth dependence of the inferred Fermi surface with doping. In the highly overdoped regime, the superconducting gap approaches the value of $2\Delta_0=(4\pm1)k_\mathrm{B}T_\mathrm{c}$, Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

Proximity-induced superconductivity in a 3D topological insulator represents a new avenue for observing zero-energy Majorana fermions inside vortex cores. Relatively small gaps and low transition temperatures of conventional s-wave superconductors put the hard constraints on these experiments. Significantly larger gaps and higher transition temperatures in cuprate superconductors might be an attractive alternative to considerably relax these constraints, but it is not clear whether the proximity effect would be effective in heterostructures involving cuprates and topological insulators. Here, we present angle-resolved photoemission studies of thin Bi2Se3 films grown in-situ on optimally doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 substrates that show the absence of proximity-induced gaps on the surfaces of Bi2Se3 films as thin as a 1.5 quintuple layer. These results suggest that the superconducting proximity effect between a cuprate superconductor and a topological insulator is strongly suppressed, likely due to a very short coherence length along the c-axis, incompatible crystal and pairing symmetries at the interface, small size of the topological surface state Fermi surface and adverse effects of a strong spin-orbit coupling in the topological material., Comment: Work presented at the March Meeting of American Physical Society in Denver on March 3, 2014