• Open Access

Spectral weight of hole-doped cuprates across the pseudogap critical point

B. Michon, A. B. Kuzmenko, M. K. Tran, B. McElfresh, S. Komiya, S. Ono, S. Uchida, and D. van der Marel
Phys. Rev. Research 3, 043125 – Published 19 November 2021

Abstract

One of the most widely discussed features of the cuprate high-Tc superconductors is the presence of a pseudogap in the normal state. Recent transport and specific heat measurements have revealed an abrupt transition at the pseudogap critical point, denoted p*, characterized by a drop in carrier density and a strong mass enhancement. In order to give more details about this transition at p*, we performed low-temperature infrared spectroscopy in the normal state of cuprate superconductors La2xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) and La1.8xEu0.2SrxCuO4 (Eu-LSCO) for doping contents across the pseudogap critical point p* (from p=0.12 to 0.24). Through the complex optical conductivity σ, we can extract the spectral weight K* of the narrow Drude peak due the coherent motion of the quasiparticles, and the spectral weight enclosed inside the mid-infrared (MIR) band KMIR caused by coupling of the quasiparticles to collective excitations of the many-body system. K* is smaller than a third of the value predicted by band calculations, and KMIR forms a dome as a function of doping. We observe a smooth doping dependence of K* through p*, and demonstrate that this is consistent with the observed doping dependence of the carrier density and the mass enhancement. We argue that the superconducting dome is the result of the confluence of two opposite trends, namely the increase of the density of the quasiparticles and the decrease of their coupling to the collective excitations as a function of doping.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 21 September 2021
  • Revised 13 October 2021
  • Accepted 20 October 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.043125

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

B. Michon1, A. B. Kuzmenko1, M. K. Tran1, B. McElfresh1, S. Komiya2, S. Ono2, S. Uchida3, and D. van der Marel1,*

  • 1Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, 24 Quai Ernest-Ansermet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
  • 2Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Materials Science Research Laboratory, 2-6-1 Nagasaka, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
  • 3Department of Superconductivity, University of Tokyo, Yayoi 2-11-16, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan

  • *dirk.vandermarel@unige.ch

Article Text

Click to Expand

References

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 3, Iss. 4 — November - December 2021

Subject Areas
Reuse & Permissions
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

×

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×