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Hard antinodal gap revealed by quantum oscillations in the pseudogap regime of underdoped high-Tc superconductors
- Source :
- Nature Physics, 16, pp. 841-847, Nature Physics, Nature Physics, 16, 841-847
-
Abstract
- An understanding of the missing antinodal electronic excitations in the pseudogap state is essential for uncovering the physics of the underdoped cuprate high-temperature superconductors1–6. The majority of high-temperature experiments performed thus far, however, have been unable to discern whether the antinodal states are rendered unobservable due to their damping or whether they vanish due to their gapping7–18. Here, we distinguish between these two scenarios by using quantum oscillations to examine whether the small Fermi surface pocket, found to occupy only 2% of the Brillouin zone in the underdoped cuprates19–24, exists in isolation against a majority of completely gapped density of states spanning the antinodes, or whether it is thermodynamically coupled to a background of ungapped antinodal states. We find that quantum oscillations associated with the small Fermi surface pocket exhibit a signature sawtooth waveform characteristic of an isolated two-dimensional Fermi surface pocket25–32. This finding reveals that the antinodal states are destroyed by a hard gap that extends over the majority of the Brillouin zone, placing strong constraints on a drastic underlying origin of quasiparticle disappearance over almost the entire Brillouin zone in the pseudogap regime7–18. A careful study of quantum oscillations of single crystals of the cuprate superconductor YBCO placed under a magnetic field reveals a sawtooth behaviour that is reminiscent of two-dimensional electronic systems—in turn suggesting the existence of a so-called ‘hard antinodal gap’ in this system.
- Subjects :
- Superconductivity
Physics
Condensed matter physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Condensed Matter - Superconductivity
General Physics and Astronomy
Quantum oscillations
FOS: Physical sciences
Fermi surface
Correlated Electron Systems
01 natural sciences
7. Clean energy
010305 fluids & plasmas
Brillouin zone
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons
Condensed Matter::Superconductivity
0103 physical sciences
Quasiparticle
Density of states
Cuprate
Condensed Matter::Strongly Correlated Electrons
010306 general physics
Pseudogap
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 17452481 and 17452473
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Physics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7af9c40055f750d3d978123410af053c
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0910-0