Investigation of renormalization effects in high temperature cuprate superconductors

While in conventional superconductors coupling between electrons and phonons is known to be responsible for the electron pairing, for the high temperature superconductors the pairing media remains under debates. Since the interactions of electrons with other degrees of freedom (phonons, magnetic excitations, etc) manifest themselves by an additional renormalization in the electronic dispersion, they can be investigated by means of Angle Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy. In the work renormalization in two families of high Tc cuprates have been studied. Along the diagonal of the two-dimensional BZ, the renormalization effects are represented by an unusual band dispersion that develops a so-called ‘‘kink’’. In the vicinity of the (pi, 0) point of the BZ, where the order parameter reaches its maximum, the renormalization is noticeably stronger and makes itself evident even in the shape of a single spectral line measured for a fixed momentum. It was shown that for the Bi-2212 samples substitution of Cu atoms in Cu-O plane changes renormalization features in ARPES spectra both in nodal and antinodal parts of the Brillouin zone. The smearing of the dip in the in the spectral line shape measured at (pi; 0) point can be well explained by coupling of electrons to the magnetic resonance mode. The effect of Zn and Ni substitution on the antinodal ARPES spectra was shown to be in good agreement with the influence of these impurities on magnetic resonance mode seen in inelastic neutron scattering experiments. This, in addition to the previous ARPES studies of temperature and doping dependence of peak-dip-hump structure, mass renormalization near antinodal region and a kink in the nodal part of Brillouin zone, provides further evidence that the coupling to magnetic excitations, rather than to phonons, is responsible for the observed unusual renormalization. Unlike the well studied Bi-2212 family of cuprates, photoemission on YBCO-123 turns out to be much more complicated. The observed spectra have a strong contribution from a heavily overdoped surface component with the hole doping level of about x~0.30, which is weakly dependent on the sample stochiometry. Absence of any signs of superconductivity in the spectra of the overdoped component was argued to result from the unusually high doping level. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the overdoped bands give rise to the Fermi surface and band structure consistent with the predictions of the LDA calculations, as well as, by the dependence of the photoemission matrix element on the excitation energy, which closely follows that of the superconducting bulk component. Specific experimental geometry was used to enhance the signal coming from the superconducting component. In particular, experiments with circularly polarized light bundled with simple theoretical considerations enabled better separation of the surface and the bulk components. This type of experiments also suggests that the overdoped component is mainly localized in the topmost CuO2 bilayer, while the next bilayers in the YBCO-123 structure already represent bulk properties and retain superconductivity. Using partially Ca substituted samples it was possible to obtain spectra with a suppressed overdoped component. The likely reason for the suppression is a shift of the most probable cleavage plane from the Ba–O interface to the Y layer. Spectra from the Ca substituted sample clearly reveal a sizable superconducting gap, and strong renormalization effects in the vicinity of the antinodal point. The fact that the renormalization vanishes above Tc and has strong momentum dependence, diminishing away from the (pi; 0)/(0; pi) point, strongly suggests that the reason for this renormalization in YBCO-123 is coupling of the electronic subsystem to spin resonance, similar to the case of Bi-2212

Experimental Realization of a Three-Dimensional Dirac Semimetal

The three dimensional (3D) Dirac semimetal, which has been predicted theoretically, is a new electronic state of matter. It can be viewed as 3D generalization of graphene, with a unique electronic structure in which conduction and valence band energies touch each other only at isolated points in momentum space (i.e. the 3D Dirac points), and thus it cannot be classified either as a metal or a semiconductor. In contrast to graphene, the Dirac points of such a semimetal are not gapped by the spin-orbit interaction and the crossing of the linear dispersions is protected by crystal symmetry. In combination with broken time-reversal or inversion symmetries, 3D Dirac points may result in a variety of topologically non-trivial phases with unique physical properties. They have, however, escaped detection in real solids so far. Here we report the direct observation of such an exotic electronic structure in cadmium arsenide (Cd3As2) by means of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). We identify two momentum regions where electronic states that strongly disperse in all directions form narrow cone-like structures, and thus prove the existence of the long sought 3D Dirac points. This electronic structure naturally explains why Cd3As2 has one of the highest known bulk electron mobilities. This realization of a 3D Dirac semimetal in Cd3As2 not only opens a direct path to a wide spectrum of applications, but also offers a robust platform for engineering topologically-nontrivial phases including Weyl semimetals and Quantum Spin Hall systems.Comment: Submitted on the 27th of September 201

One-sign order parameter in iron based superconductor

The onset of superconductivity at the transition temperature is marked by the onset of order, which is characterized by an energy gap. Most models of the iron-based superconductors find a sign-changing (s±) order parameter [1–6], with the physical implication that pairing is driven by spin fluctuations. Recent work, however, has indicated that LiFeAs has a simple isotropic order parameter [7–9] and spin fluctuations are not necessary [7,10], contrary to the models [1–6]. The strength of the spin fluctuations has been controversial [11,12], meaning that the mechanism of superconductivity cannot as yet be determined. We report the momentum dependence of the superconducting energy gap, where we find an anisotropy that rules out coupling through spin fluctuations and the sign change. The results instead suggest that orbital fluctuations assisted by phonons [13,14] are the best explanation for superconductivity

Stacked topological insulator built from bismuth-based graphene sheet analogues

Commonly materials are classified as either electrical conductors or insulators. The theoretical discovery of topological insulators (TIs) in 2005 has fundamentally challenged this dichotomy. In a TI, spin-orbit interaction generates a non-trivial topology of the electronic band-structure dictating that its bulk is perfectly insulating, while its surface is fully conducting. The first TI candidate material put forward -graphene- is of limited practical use since its weak spin-orbit interactions produce a band-gap of ~0.01K. Recent reinvestigation of Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3, however, have firmly categorized these materials as strong three-dimensional TI's. We have synthesized the first bulk material belonging to an entirely different, weak, topological class, built from stacks of two-dimensional TI's: Bi14Rh3I9. Its Bi-Rh sheets are graphene analogs, but with a honeycomb net composed of RhBi8-cubes rather than carbon atoms. The strong bismuth-related spin-orbit interaction renders each graphene-like layer a TI with a 2400K band-gap.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Valence-state reflectometry of complex oxide heterointerfaces

Emergent phenomena in transition-metal-oxide heterostructures such as interface superconductivity and magnetism have been attributed to electronic reconstruction, which, however, is difficult to detect and characterise. Here we overcome the associated difficulties to simultaneously address the electronic degrees of freedom and distinguish interface from bulk effects by implementing a novel approach to resonant X-ray reflectivity (RXR). Our RXR study of the chemical and valance profiles along the polar (001) direction of a LaCoO3 film on NdGaO3 reveals a pronounced valence-state reconstruction from Co3+ in the bulk to Co2+ at the surface, with an areal density close to 0.5 Co2+ ions per unit cell. An identical film capped with polar (001) LaAlO3 maintains the Co3+ valence over its entire thickness. We interpret this as evidence for electronic reconstruction in the uncapped film, involving the transfer of 0.5e− per unit cell to the subsurface CoO2 layer at its LaO-terminated polar surface