Topological pseudogap in highly polarizable layered systems with 2D hole-like dispersion

Abstract

Pseudogap in hole-doped cuprate superconductors is acknowledged as a possible key to understanding their ground normal state, however, existing pseudogap models have essential inconsistencies with experiments. In our approach pseudogap emerges due to impact of autolocalized carriers on stationary states of delocalized ones and topology of the 2D hole-like dispersion. Autolocalized carriers create potential which transforms Bloch quasiparticles into distributed wave packets (DWPs) with different momentums in areas with different potential. Topology of hole-like constant energy curves in 2D-conducting cuprates forbids DWPs with average momentums near antinode. Manifestation of permitted DWPs in ARPES spectra demonstrates all known pseudogap features including midpoint shift, giant broadening and Fermi momentum misalignment. Calculated doping dependence of the pseudogap width and onset temperature agrees with experiments. The obtained ground normal state of the hole-doped cuprates, in which all the doped holes are autolocalized until high doping is reached and near-antinodal electron DWPs are absent, explains Fermi surface reconstruction from small electron pocket to large hole-like Fermi surface observed in quantum oscillation measurements. Our results open a possibility of creating systems with artificial pseudogap and switchable density of states on the base of highly polarizable layered structures with 2D conductivity and hole-like dispersion.