arXiv · 2502.03779
Out-of-phase Plasmon Excitations in the Trilayer Cuprate Bi$_2$Sr$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{10+\delta}$
Abstract
Within a homologous series of cuprate superconductors, variations in the stacking of CuO$_2$ layers influence the collective charge dynamics through the long-range Coulomb interactions. We use O $K$-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering to reveal plasmon excitations in the optimally-doped trilayer Bi$_2$Sr$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{10+\delta}$. The observed plasmon exhibits nearly $q_z$-independent dispersion and a large excitation gap of approximately 300 meV. This mode is primarily ascribed to the $\omega_{-}$ mode, where the charge density on the outer CuO$_2$ sheets oscillates out of phase while the density in the inner sheet remains unaltered at $q_z=0$. The intensity of the acoustic $\omega_3$ mode is relatively weak and becomes vanishingly small near $(q_x, q_y)=(0, 0)$. This result highlights a qualitative change in the eigenmode of the dominant low-energy plasmon with the number of CuO$_2$ layers.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
S. Nakata, M. Bejas, J. Okamoto, K. Yamamoto, D. Shiga, R. Takahashi, H. Y. Huang, H. Kumigashira, H. Wadati, J. Miyawaki, S. Ishida, H. Eisaki, A. Fujimori, A. Greco, H. Yamase, D. J. Huang, H. Suzuki. 2025-02-06. Out-of-phase Plasmon Excitations in the Trilayer Cuprate Bi$_2$Sr$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{10+\delta}$. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.111.165141
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.