480 research outputs found
Inelastic X-ray scattering studies of phonon dispersions in superconductors at high pressures
Electron-phonon interaction is of central importance for the electrical and
heat transport properties of metals, and is directly responsible for
charge-density-waves or (conventional) superconducting instabilities. The
direct observation of phonon dispersion anomalies across electronic phase
transitions can provide insightful information regarding the mechanisms
underlying their formation. Here, we review the current status of phonon
dispersion studies in superconductors under hydrostatic and uniaxial pressure.
Advances in the instrumentation of high resolution inelastic X-ray scattering
beamlines and pressure generating devices allow these measurements to be
performed routinely at synchrotron beamlines worldwide.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Invited review submitted to Superconductor
Science and Technology, Focus issue on Hydride & High-Pressure
Superconductors. References in figure caption fixed. Hyperlinks adde
Incommensurate phonon anomaly and the nature of charge density waves in cuprates
While charge density wave (CDW) instabilities are ubiquitous to
superconducting cuprates, the different ordering wavevectors in various cuprate
families have hampered a unified description of the CDW formation mechanism.
Here we investigate the temperature dependence of the low energy phonons in the
canonical CDW ordered cuprate LaBaCuO. We discover
that the phonon softening wavevector associated with CDW correlations becomes
temperature dependent in the high-temperature precursor phase and changes from
a wavevector of 0.238 reciprocal space units (r.l.u.) below the ordering
transition temperature up to 0.3~r.l.u. at 300~K. This high-temperature
behavior shows that "214"-type cuprates can host CDW correlations at a similar
wavevector to previously reported CDW correlations in non-"214"-type cuprates
such as YBaCuO. This indicates that cuprate CDWs may
arise from the same underlying instability despite their apparently different
low temperature ordering wavevectors.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. X; 9 pages; 5 figures; 3 pages of
supplementary materia
Tunable Charge and Spin Order in PrNiO Thin Films and Superlattices
We have used polarized Raman scattering to probe lattice vibrations and
charge ordering in 12 nm thick, epitaxially strained PrNiO films, and in
superlattices of PrNiO with the band-insulator PrAlO. A carefully
adjusted confocal geometry was used to eliminate the substrate contribution to
the Raman spectra. In films and superlattices under tensile strain, which
undergo a metal-insulator transition upon cooling, the Raman spectra reveal
phonon modes characteristic of charge ordering. These anomalous phonons do not
appear in compressively strained films, which remain metallic at all
temperatures. For superlattices under compressive strain, the Raman spectra
show no evidence of anomalous phonons indicative of charge ordering, while
complementary resonant x-ray scattering experiments reveal antiferromagnetic
order associated with a modest increase in resistivity upon cooling. This
confirms theoretical predictions of a spin density wave phase driven by spatial
confinement of the conduction electrons.Comment: PRL, in pres
Anomalous pressure dependence of the electronic transport and anisotropy in SrIrO₃ films
Iridate oxides display exotic physical properties that arise from the interplay between a largespin–orbit coupling and electron correlations. Here, we present a comprehensive study of theeffects of hydrostatic pressure on the electronic transport properties of SrIrO3(SIO), a systemthat has recently attracted a lot of attention as potential correlated Dirac semimetal. Ourinvestigations on untwinned thin lms of SIO reveal that theelectrical resistivity of thismaterial is intrinsically anisotropic and controlled by the orthorhombic distortion of theperovskite unit cell. These effects provide another evidence for the strong coupling betweenthe electronic and lattice degrees of freedom in this class of compounds. Upon increasingpressure, a systematic increase of the transport anisotropies is observed. The anomalouspressure-induced changes of the resistivity cannot be accounted for by the pressuredependence of the density of the electron charge carriers, as inferred from Hall effectmeasurements. Moreover, pressure-induced rotations of the IrO6octahedra likely occur withinthe distorted perovskite unit cell and affect electron mobility of this syste
Long-range charge density wave proximity effect at cuprate-manganate interfaces
The interplay between charge density waves (CDWs) and high-temperature
superconductivity is currently under intense investigation. Experimental
research on this issue is difficult because CDW formation in bulk copper-oxides
is strongly influenced by random disorder, and a long-range-ordered CDW state
in high magnetic fields is difficult to access with spectroscopic and
diffraction probes. Here we use resonant x-ray scattering in zero magnetic
field to show that interfaces with the metallic ferromagnet
LaCaMnO greatly enhance CDW formation in the optimally
doped high-temperature superconductor YBaCuO (), and that this effect persists over several tens of nm. The wavevector
of the incommensurate CDW serves as an internal calibration standard of the
charge carrier concentration, which allows us to rule out any significant
influence of oxygen non-stoichiometry, and to attribute the observed phenomenon
to a genuine electronic proximity effect. Long-range proximity effects induced
by heterointerfaces thus offer a powerful method to stabilize the charge
density wave state in the cuprates, and more generally, to manipulate the
interplay between different collective phenomena in metal oxides.Comment: modified version published in Nature Material
Momentum-dependent charge correlations in YBaCuO superconductors probed by resonant x-ray scattering: Evidence for three competing phases
We have used resonant x-ray scattering to determine the momentum dependent
charge correlations in YBaCuO samples with highly ordered
chain arrays of oxygen acceptors (ortho-II structure). The results reveal
nearly critical, biaxial charge density wave (CDW) correlations at in-plane
wave vectors (0.315, 0) and (0, 0.325). The corresponding scattering intensity
exhibits a strong uniaxial anisotropy. The CDW amplitude and correlation length
are enhanced as superconductivity is weakened by an external magnetic field.
Analogous experiments were carried out on a YBaCuO crystal with
a dilute concentration of spinless (Zn) impurities, which had earlier been
shown to nucleate incommensurate magnetic order. Compared to pristine crystals
with the same doping level, the CDW amplitude and correlation length were found
to be strongly reduced. These results indicate a three-phase competition
between spin-modulated, charge-modulated, and superconducting states in
underdoped YBaCuO.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Connection between charge-density-wave order and charge transport in the cuprate superconductors
Charge-density-wave (CDW) correlations within the quintessential CuO
planes have been argued to either cause [1] or compete with [2] the
superconductivity in the cuprates, and they might furthermore drive the
Fermi-surface reconstruction in high magnetic fields implied by quantum
oscillation (QO) experiments for YBaCuO (YBCO) [3] and
HgBaCuO (Hg1201) [4]. Consequently, the observation of bulk
CDW order in YBCO was a significant development [5,6,7]. Hg1201 features
particularly high structural symmetry and recently has been demonstrated to
exhibit Fermi-liquid charge transport in the relevant temperature-doping range
of the phase diagram, whereas for YBCO and other cuprates this underlying
property of the CuO planes is partially or fully masked [8-10]. It
therefore is imperative to establish if the pristine transport behavior of
Hg1201 is compatible with CDW order. Here we investigate Hg1201 ( = 72 K)
via bulk Cu L-edge resonant X-ray scattering. We indeed observe CDW
correlations in the absence of a magnetic field, although the correlations and
competition with superconductivity are weaker than in YBCO. Interestingly, at
the measured hole-doping level, both the short-range CDW and Fermi-liquid
transport appear below the same temperature of about 200 K. Our result points
to a unifying picture in which the CDW formation is preceded at the higher
pseudogap temperature by = 0 magnetic order [11,12] and the build-up of
significant dynamic antiferromagnetic correlations [13]. Furthermore, the
smaller CDW modulation wave vector observed for Hg1201 is consistent with the
larger electron pocket implied by both QO [4] and Hall-effect [14]
measurements, which suggests that CDW correlations are indeed responsible for
the low-temperature QO phenomenon
Charge order driven by Fermi-arc instability in Bi2201
The understanding of the origin of superconductivity in cuprates has been
hindered by the apparent diversity of intertwining electronic orders in these
materials. We combined resonant x-ray scattering (REXS), scanning-tunneling
microscopy (STM), and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to
observe a charge order that appears consistently in surface and bulk, and in
momentum and real space within one cuprate family, Bi2201. The observed wave
vectors rule out simple antinodal nesting in the single-particle limit but
match well with a phenomenological model of a many-body instability of the
Fermi arcs. Combined with earlier observations of electronic order in other
cuprate families, these findings suggest the existence of a generic
charge-ordered state in underdoped cuprates and uncover its intimate connection
to the pseudogap regime.Comment: A high resolution version can be found at
http://www.phas.ubc.ca/~quantmat/ARPES/PUBLICATIONS/Articles/Bi2201_CDW_REXS_STM.pdf
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