2,215 research outputs found
Phase diagram and optical conductivity of La1.8-xEu0.2SrxCuO4
La1.8-xEu0.2SrxCuO4 (LESCO) is the member of the 214 family which exhibits
the largest intervals among the structural, charge ordering (CO), magnetic, and
superconducting transition temperatures. By using new dc transport measurements
and data in the literature we construct the phase diagram of LESCO between x =
0.8 and 0.20. This phase diagram has been further probed in ac, by measuring
the optical conductivity {\sigma}1({\omega}) of three single crystals with x =
0.11, 0.125, and 0.16 between 10 and 300 K in order to associate the
extra-Drude peaks often observed in the 214 family with a given phase. The
far-infrared peak we detect in underdoped LESCO is the hardest among them,
survives up to room temperature and is associated with charge localization
rather than with ordering. At the CO transition for the commensurate doping x =
0.125 instead the extra-Drude peak hardens and a pseudogap opens in
{\sigma}1({\omega}), approximately as wide as the maximum superconducting gap
of LSCO.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Raman Scattering versus Infrared Conductivity: Evidence for one-dimensional Conduction in La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}
Raman and Infrared (IR) spectra of an underdoped La_{1.90}Sr_{0.10}CuO_{4}
single crystal have been measured as a function of temperature. Both techniques
provide unconventional low-energy spectra. The IR conductivity exhibits
features peaked at finite frequencies which do not have a counterpart in the
Raman response. Below approximately 100 K a transfer of both Raman and IR
spectral weight towards lower energies is found and a new component in the
Raman response builds up being characterized by a very long lifetime of
electrons propagating along the Cu-O bonds.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figure
Low-energy electrodynamics of superconducting diamond
Heavily-boron-doped diamond films become superconducting with critical
temperatures well above 4 K. Here we first measure the reflectivity of
such a film down to 5 cm, by also using Coherent Synchrotron Radiation.
We thus determine the optical gap, the field penetration depth, the range of
action of the Ferrell-Glover-Tinkham sum rule, and the electron-phonon spectral
function. We conclude that diamond behaves as a dirty BCS superconductor.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figure
Infrared signatures of charge stripes in La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4)
The in-plane optical conductivity of seven La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) single crystals
with x between 0 and 0.15 has been studied from 30 to 295 K. All doped samples
exhibit strong peaks in the far-infrared, which closely resemble those observed
in Cu-O "ladders" with one-dimensional charge-ordering. The behavior with
doping and temperature of the peak energy, width, and intensity allows us to
conclude that we are observing charge stripes dynamics in La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) on
the fast time scale of infrared spectroscopy.Comment: 9 pages including figs. in pdf forma
Optical conductivity of the nonsuperconducting cuprate La(8-x)Sr(x)Cu(8)O(20)
La(8-x)Sr(x)Cu(8)O(20) is a non-superconducting cuprate, which exhibits a
doubling of the elementary cell along the c axis. Its optical conductivity
sigma (omega) has been first measured here, down to 20 K, in two single
crystals with x = 1.56 and x = 2.24. Along c, sigma (omega) shows, in both
samples, bands due to strongly bound charges, thus confirming that the cell
doubling is due to charge ordering. In the ab plane, in addition to the Drude
term one observes an infrared peak at 0.1 eV and a midinfrared band at 0.7 eV.
The 0.1 eV peak hardens considerably below 200 K, in correspondence of an
anomalous increase in the sample dc resistivity, in agreement with its
polaronic origin. This study allows one to establish relevant similarities and
differences with respect to the spectrum of the ab plane of the superconducting
cuprates.Comment: Revised version submitted to Phys. Rev. B, including the elimination
of Fig. 1 and changes to Figs. 4 and
Optical Absorption of an Interacting Many-Polaron Gas
The optical absorption of a many (continuum) polaron gas is derived in the
framework of a variational approach at zero temperature and weak or
intermediate electron-phonon coupling strength. We derive a compact formula for
the optical conductivity of the many-polaron system taking into account
many-body effects in the electron or hole system. Within the method presented
here, these effects are contained completely in the dynamical structure factor
of the electron or hole system. This allows to build on well-established
studies of the interacting electron gas. Based on this approach a novel feature
in the absorption spectrum of the many-polaron gas, related to the emission of
a plasmon together with a phonon, is identified. As an application and
illustration of the technique, we compare the theoretical many-polaron optical
absorption spectrum as derived in the present work with the `d-band' absorption
feature in NdCuO. Similarities are shown between the theoretically
and the experimentally derived first frequency moment of the optical absorption
of a family of differently doped NdCeCuO materials.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures; revised and expanded versio
Anomalous optical absorption in overdoped cuprates near the charge-ordering instability
We propose an interpretation for the hump observed in the optical
conductivity at or below a few hundreds of cm, in overdoped cuprates
like the electron-doped Nd_{2-x}Ce_xCuO_{4-y} at x\gtrsim 0.15 and the
hole-doped Bi_2Sr_2CuO_6 and La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4. This interpretation is based on
the direct excitation of charge collective modes, which become nearly critical
in the proximity to a charge-ordering instability. The nearly critical
character of these excitations entails a peculiar temperature dependence and a
pseudo-scaling form of the lineshapes, which are in agreement with the
experimental data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Pressure dependence of the optical properties of the charge-density-wave compound LaTe
We report the pressure dependence of the optical response of LaTe, which
is deep in the charge-density-wave (CDW) ground state even at 300 K. The
reflectivity spectrum is collected in the mid-infrared spectral range at room
temperature and at pressures between 0 and 7 GPa. We extract the energy scale
due to the single particle excitation across the CDW gap and the Drude weight.
We establish that the gap decreases upon compressing the lattice, while the
Drude weight increases. This signals a reduction in the quality of nesting upon
applying pressure, therefore inducing a lesser impact of the CDW condensate on
the electronic properties of LaTe. The consequent suppression of the CDW
gap leads to a release of additional charge carriers, manifested by the shift
of weight from the gap feature into the metallic component of the optical
response. On the contrary, the power-law behavior, seen in the optical
conductivity at energies above the gap excitation and indicating a weakly
interacting limit within the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid scenario, seems to be
only moderately dependent on pressure
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