Two mechanisms of pseudogap formation in Bi-2201: Evidence from the c-axis magnetoresistance

Measurements of the c-axis resistivity and magnetoresistance have been used to investigate the pseudogap (PG) behavior in Bi_{2+z}Sr_{2-x-z}La_xCuO_y (Bi-2201) crystals at various hole densities. While the PG opening temperature T* increases with decreasing hole doping, the magnetic-field sensitivity of the PG is found to have a very different trend: it appears at lower temperatures in more underdoped samples and vanishes in non-superconducting samples. These data suggest that besides the field-insensitive pseudogap emerging at T*, a distinct one is formed above T_c as a precursor to superconductivity.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Europhysics Letters (initially submitted to PRL on 14 June 2000

Crossover from a pseudogap state to a superconducting state

On the basis of our calculation we deduce that the particular electronic structure of cuprate superconductors confines Cooper pairs to be firstly formed in the antinodal region which is far from the Fermi surface, and these pairs are incoherent and result in the pseudogap state. With the change of doping or temperature, some pairs are formed in the nodal region which locates the Fermi surface, and these pairs are coherent and lead to superconductivity. Thus the coexistence of the pseudogap and the superconducting gap is explained when the two kinds of gaps are not all on the Fermi surface. It is also shown that the symmetry of the pseudogap and the superconducting gap are determined by the electronic structure, and non-s wave symmetry gap favors the high-temperature superconductivity. Why the high-temperature superconductivity occurs in the metal region near the Mott metal-insulator transition is also explained.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Far-infrared spectroscopy of spin excitations and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in a Shastry-Sutherland compound SrCu2_2(BO3_3)$_2

We have studied spin excitation spectra in the Shastry-Sutherland model compound SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ in magnetic fields using far-infrared Fourier spectroscopy. The transitions from the ground singlet state to the triplet state at 24 cm$^{-1}$ and to several bound triplet states are induced by the electric field component of the far-infrared light. To explain the light absorption in the spin system we invoke a dynamic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) mechanism where light couples to a phonon mode, allowing the DM interaction. Two optical phonons couple light to the singlet to triplet transition in SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$. One is $a$-polarized and creates an intra-dimer dynamic DM along the c axis. The other is $c$-polarized and creates an intra-dimer dynamic DM interaction, it is in the $(ab)$ plane and perpendicular to the dimer axis. Singlet levels at 21.5 and 28.6 cm$^{-1}$ anti-cross with the first triplet as is seen in far-infrared spectra. We used a cluster of two dimers with a periodic boundary condition to perform a model calculation with scaled intra- and inter-dimer exchange interactions. Two static DM interactions are sufficient to describe the observed triplet state spectra. The static inter-dimer DM in the c-direction $d_1=0.7$ cm$^{-1}$ splits the triplet state sub-levels in zero field [C\'{e}pas et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{87}, 167205 (2001)]. The static intra-dimer DM in the $(ab)$ plane (perpendicular to the dimer axis) $d_2=1.8$ cm$^{-1}$, allowed by the buckling of CuBO$_3$ planes, couples the triplet state to the 28.6 cm$^{-1}$ singlet as is seen from the avoided crossing.Comment: 12 pages with 7 figures, some references correcte