Long-range order and pinning of charge-density waves in competition with superconductivity

Yosef Caplan; Gideon Wachtel; Dror Orgad

doi:10.1103/physrevb.92.224504

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arXiv · 1502.07498

Long-range order and pinning of charge-density waves in competition with superconductivity

Yosef Caplan·Gideon Wachtel·Dror Orgad

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Abstract

Recent experiments show that charge-density-wave correlations are prevalent in underdoped cuprate superconductors. The correlations are short ranged at weak magnetic fields but their intensity and spatial extent increase rapidly at low temperatures beyond a crossover field. Here we consider the possibility of long-range charge-density-wave order in a model of a layered system where such order competes with superconductivity.We show that in the clean limit, low-temperature long-range order is stabilized by arbitrarily weak magnetic fields. This apparent discrepancy with the experiments is resolved by the presence of disorder. Like the field, disorder nucleates halos of charge-density wave, but unlike the former it also disrupts interhalo coherence, leading to a correlation length that is always finite. Our results are compatible with various experimental trends, including the onset of longer range correlations induced by interlayer coupling above a characteristic field scale.

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Yosef Caplan, Gideon Wachtel, Dror Orgad. 2015-02-26. Long-range order and pinning of charge-density waves in competition with superconductivity. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.92.224504

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