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Lifshitz critical point in the cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy from high-field Hall effect measurements

David LeBoeuf, Nicolas Doiron-Leyraud, B. Vignolle, Mike Sutherland, B. J. Ramshaw, J. Levallois, R. Daou, Francis Laliberté, Olivier Cyr-Choinière, Johan Chang, Y. J. Jo, L. Balicas, Ruixing Liang, D. A. Bonn, W. N. Hardy, Cyril Proust, and Louis Taillefer
Phys. Rev. B 83, 054506 – Published 14 February 2011
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Abstract

The Hall coefficient RH of the cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy was measured in magnetic fields up to 60 T for a hole concentration p from 0.078 to 0.152 in the underdoped regime. In fields large enough to suppress superconductivity, RH(T) is seen to go from positive at high temperature to negative at low temperature, for p>0.08. This change of sign is attributed to the emergence of an electron pocket in the Fermi surface at low temperature. At p<0.08, the normal-state RH(T) remains positive at all temperatures, increasing monotonically as T0. We attribute the change of behavior across p=0.08 to a Lifshitz transition, namely a change in Fermi-surface topology occurring at a critical concentration pL=0.08, where the electron pocket vanishes. The loss of the high-mobility electron pocket across pL coincides with a tenfold drop in the conductivity at low temperature, revealed in measurements of the electrical resistivity ρ at high fields, showing that the so-called metal-insulator crossover of cuprates is in fact driven by a Lifshitz transition. It also coincides with a jump in the in-plane anisotropy of ρ, showing that without its electron pocket, the Fermi surface must have strong twofold in-plane anisotropy. These findings are consistent with a Fermi-surface reconstruction caused by a unidirectional spin-density wave or stripe order.

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  • Received 13 September 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.054506

©2011 American Physical Society

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Picking the cuprates’ Fermi pockets

Published 14 February 2011

Transport and quantum oscillations measurements in the cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy point to density-wave order as an explanation for the peculiar doping evolution of the Fermi surface.

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Authors & Affiliations

David LeBoeuf1,*, Nicolas Doiron-Leyraud1, B. Vignolle2, Mike Sutherland3,†, B. J. Ramshaw4, J. Levallois2,‡, R. Daou1,§, Francis Laliberté1, Olivier Cyr-Choinière1, Johan Chang1, Y. J. Jo5, L. Balicas5, Ruixing Liang4,6, D. A. Bonn4,6, W. N. Hardy4,6, Cyril Proust2,6, and Louis Taillefer1,6,∥

  • 1Département de Physique and RQMP, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada J1K 2R1
  • 2Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses, UPR 3228 (CNRS, INSA, UJF, UPS), Toulouse 31400, France
  • 3Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A7
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada BC V6T 1Z1
  • 5National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
  • 6Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1Z8

  • *Present address: Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses, UPR 3228 (CNRS, INSA, UJF, UPS), Toulouse 31400, France.
  • Present address: Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 OHE, UK.
  • Present address: DPMC–Université de Genève, CH 1211, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • §Present address: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
  • louis.taillefer@physique.usherbrooke.ca.

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Vol. 83, Iss. 5 — 1 February 2011

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