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Andres Greco

Publications and source records attributed to Andres Greco.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

Retaining Landau quasiparticles in the presence of realistic charge fluctuations in cuprates

Charge excitation spectra are getting clear in cuprate superconductors in momentum-energy space especially around a small momentum region, where plasmon excitations become dominant. Here, we study whether Landau quasiparticles survive in the presence of charge fluctuations observed in experiments. We employ the layered t-J model with the long-range Coulomb interaction, which can reproduce the realistic charge fluctuations. We find that Landau quasiparticles are retained in a realistic temperature and doping region, although the quasiparticle spectral weight is strongly reduced to 0.08-0.24. Counterintuitively, the presence of this small quasiparticle weight does not work favorably to generate a pseudogap.

cond-mat.str-el

Plasmarons in high-temperature cuprate superconductors

Metallic systems exhibit plasmons as elementary charge excitations. This fundamental concept was reinforced also in high-temperature cuprate superconductors recently, although cuprates are not only layered systems but also strongly correlated electron systems. Here, we study how such ubiquitous plasmons leave their marks on the electron dispersion in cuprates. In contrast to phonons and magnetic fluctuations, plasmons do not yield a kink in the electron dispersion. Instead, we find that the optical plasmon accounts for an emergent band -- plasmarons -- in the one-particle excitation spectrum; acoustic-like plasmons typical to a layered system are far less effective. Because of strong electron correlations, the plasmarons are generated by bosonic fluctuations associated with the local constraint, not by the usual charge-density fluctuations. Apart from this physical mechanism, the plasmarons are similar to those discussed in alkali metals, Bi, graphene, monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides, semiconductors, diamond, two-dimensional electron systems, and SrIrO3 films, establishing a concept of plasmarons in metallic systems in general. Plasmarons are realized below (above) the quasiparticle band in electron-doped (hole-doped) cuprates, including a region around (pi,0) and (0,pi) where the superconducting gap and the pseudogap are most enhanced.

cond-mat.supr-con

Detection of Acoustic Plasmons in Hole-Doped Lanthanum and Bismuth Cuprate Superconductors Using Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering

High Tc superconductors show a rich variety of phases associated with their charge degrees of freedom. Valence charges can give rise to charge ordering or acoustic plasmons in these layered cuprate superconductors. While charge ordering has been observed for both hole- and electron-doped cuprates, acoustic plasmons have only been found in electron-doped materials. Here, we use resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) to observe the presence of acoustic plasmons in two families of hole-doped cuprate superconductors [La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) and Bi2Sr1.6La0.4CuO6+d (Bi2201)], crucially completing the picture. Interestingly, in contrast to the quasi-static charge ordering which manifests at both Cu and O sites, the observed acoustic plasmons are predominantly associated with the O sites, revealing a unique dichotomy in the behaviour of valence charges in hole-doped cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el

Competition between spin-induced charge instabilities in underdoped cuprates

We study the static charge correlation function in an one-band model on a square lattice. The Hamiltonian consist of effective hoppings of the electrons between the lattice sites and the Heisenberg Hamiltonian. Approximating the irreducible charge correlation function by a single bubble yields the ladder approximation for the charge correlation function. In this approximation one finds in general three charge instabilities, two of them are due to nesting, the third one is the flux phase instability. Since these instabilities cannot explain the experiments in hole-doped cuprates we have included in the irreducible charge correlation function also Aslamasov-Larkin (AL) diagrams where charge fluctuations interact with products of spin fluctuations. We then find at high temperatures a nematic or $d$-wave Pomeranchuk instability with a very small momentum. Its transition temperature decreases roughly linearly with doping in the underdoped region and vanishes near optimal doping. Decreasing the temperature further a secondary axial charge-density wave (CDW) instability appears with mainly $d$-wave symmetry and a wave vector somewhat larger than the distance between nearest neighbor hot spots. At still lower temperatures the diagonal flux phase instability emerges. A closer look shows that the AL diagrams enhance mainly axial and not diagonal charge fluctuations in our one-band model. This is the main reason why axial and not diagonal instabilities are the leading ones in agreement with experiment. The two instabilities due to nesting vanish already at very low temperatures and do not play any major role in the phase diagram. Remarkable is that the nematic and the axial CDW instabilities show a large reentrant behavior.

cond-mat.supr-con

Dual structure in the charge excitation spectrum of electron-doped cuprates

Motivated by the recent resonant x-ray scattering (RXS) and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) experiments in electron-doped cuprates, we study the charge excitation spectrum in a layered t-J model with the long-range Coulomb interaction. We show that the spectrum is not dominated by a specific type of charge excitations, but by different kinds of charge fluctuations, and is characterized by a dual structure in the energy space. Low-energy charge excitations correspond to various types of bond-charge fluctuations driven by the exchange term (J-term) whereas high-energy charge excitations are due to usual on-site charge fluctuations and correspond to plasmon excitations above the particle-hole continuum. The interlayer coupling, which is frequently neglected in many theoretical studies, is particularly important to the high-energy charge excitations.

cond-mat.supr-con

Translation-Invariant Parent Hamiltonians of Valence Bond Crystals

We present a general method to construct translation-invariant and SU(2) symmetric antiferromagnetic parent Hamiltonians of valence bond crystals (VBC). The method is based on a canonical mapping transforming S=1/2 spin operators into a bilinear form of a new set of dimer fermion operators. We construct parent Hamltonians of the columnar- and the staggered-VBC on the square lattice, for which the VBC is an eigenstate in all regimes and the exact ground state in some region of the phase diagram. We study the depart from the exact VBC regime upon tuning the anisotropy by means of the hierarchical mean field theory and exact diagonalization on finite clusters. In both Hamiltonians, the VBC phase extends over the exact regime and transits to a columnar antiferromagnet (CAFM) through a window of intermediate phases, revealing an intriguing competition of correlation lengths at the VBC-CAFM transition. The method can be readily applied to construct other VBC parent Hamiltonians in different lattices and dimensions.

cond-mat.str-el

Charge-Density-Excitation Spectrum in the t-t'-J-V Model

We study the density-density correlation function in a large-N scheme of the t-t'-J-V model. When the nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction V is zero, our model exhibits phase separation in a wide doping region and we obtain large spectral weight near momentum q=(0,0) at low energy, which originates from the proximity to phase separation. These features are much stronger for electron doping than for hole doping. However, once phase separation is suppressed by including a finite V, the low-energy spectral weight around q=(0,0) is substantially suppressed. Instead a sharp zero-sound mode is stabilized above the particle-hole continuum. We discuss that the presence of a moderate value of V, which is frequently neglected in the t-J model, is important to understand low-energy charge excitations especially close to q=(0,0) for electron doping. This insight should be taken into account in a future study of x-ray scattering measurements.

cond-mat.str-el

A note on the path integral representation for Majorana fermions

Majorana fermions are currently of huge interest in the context of nanoscience and condensed matter physics. Different to usual fermions, Majorana fermions have the property that the particle is its own anti-particle thus, they must be described by real fields. Mathematically, this property makes nontrivial the quantization of the problem due, for instance, to the absence of a Wick-like theorem. In view of the present interest on the subject, it is important to develop different theoretical approaches in order to study problems where Majorana fermions are involved. In this note we show that Majorana fermions can be studied in the context of field theories for constrained systems. Using the Faddeev-Jackiw formalism for quantum field theories with constraints, we derived the path integral representation for Majorana fermions. In order to show the validity of the path integral we apply it to an exactly solvable problem. This application also shows that it is rather simple to perform systematic calculations on the basis of the present framework.

cond-mat.other

Plasmon excitations in layered high-Tc cuprates

Motivated by the recent resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) experiment for the electron-doped cuprates Nd_{2-x}Ce_{x}CuO_{4} with x around 0.15, we compute the density-density correlation function in the t-J model on a square lattice by including interlayer hopping and the long-range Coulomb interaction. We find that collective charge excitations are realized not inside the particle-hole continuum, but above the continuum as plasmons. The plasmon mode has a rather flat dispersion near the in-plane momentum q=(0,0) with a typical excitation energy of the order of the intralayer hopping t when the out-of-plane momentum qz is zero. However, when qz becomes finite, the plasmon dispersion changes drastically near q=(0,0), leading to a strong dispersive feature with an excitation gap scaled by the interlayer hopping tz. We discuss that the mode recently observed by RIXS near q=(0,0) can be associated with the plasmon mode with a finite qz.

cond-mat.str-el

Strong particle-hole asymmetry of charge instabilities in doped Mott insulators

We study possible charge instabilities in doped Mott insulators by employing the two-dimensional t-J model with a positive value of the next nearest-neighbor hopping integral t' on a square lattice, which is applicable to electron-doped cuprates. Although the d-wave charge density wave (flux phase) and d-wave Pomeranchuk instability (nematic order) are dominant instabilities for a negative t' that corresponds to hole-doped cuprates, we find that those instabilities are strongly suppressed and become relevant only rather close to half filling. Instead, various types of bond orders with modulation vectors close to (pi,pi) are dominant in a moderate doping region. Phase separation is also enhanced, but it can be suppressed substantially by the nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion without affecting the aforementioned charge instabilities.

cond-mat.supr-con

Pseudogap in cuprates driven by d-wave flux-phase order proximity effects: A theoretical analysis from Raman and ARPES experiments

One of the puzzling characteristics of the pseudogap phase of high-$T_c$ cuprates is the nodal-antinodal dichotomy. While the nodal quasiparticles have a Fermi liquid behaviour, the antinodal ones show non-Fermi liquid features and an associated pseudogap. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and electronic Raman scattering are two valuable tools which have shown universal features which are rather material-independent, and presumably intrinsic to the pseudogap phase. The doping and temperature dependence of the Fermi arcs and the pseudogap observed by photoemission near the antinode correlates with the non-Fermi liquid behaviour observed by Raman for the B$_{1g}$ mode. In contrast, and similar to the nodal quasiparticles detected by photoemission, the Raman B$_{2g}$ mode shows Fermi liquid features. We show that these two experiments can be analysed, in the context of the $t$-$J$ model, by self-energy effects in the proximity to a d-wave flux-phase order instability. This approach supports a crossover origin for the pseudogap, and a scenario of two competing phases. The B$_{2g}$ mode shows, in an underdoped case, a depletion at intermediate energy which has attracted a renewed interest. We study this depletion and discuss its origin and relation with the pseudogap.

cond-mat.supr-con

Possible charge instabilities in two-dimensional doped Mott insulators

Motivated by the growing evidence of the importance of charge fluctuations in the pseudogap phase in high-temperature cuprate superconductors, we apply a large-N expansion formulated in a path integral representation of the two-dimensional t-J model on a square lattice. We study all possible charge instabilities of the paramagnetic state in leading order of the 1/N expansion. While the d-wave charge density wave (flux phase) becomes the leading instability for various choices of model parameters, we find that a d-wave Pomeranchuk (electronic nematic phase) instability occurs as a next leading one. In particular, the nematic state has a strong tendency to become inhomogeneous. In the presence of a large second nearest-neighbor hopping integral, the flux phase is suppressed and the electronic nematic instability becomes leading in a high doping region. Besides these two major instabilities, bond-order phases occur as weaker instabilities close to half-filling. Phase separation is also detected in a finite temperature region near half-filling.

cond-mat.str-el

Path integrals for dimerized quantum spin systems

Dimerized quantum spin systems may appear under several circumstances, e.g\ by a modulation of the antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in space, or in frustrated quantum antiferromagnets. In general, such systems display a quantum phase transition to a N\'eel state as a function of a suitable coupling constant. We present here two path-integral formulations appropriate for spin $S=1/2$ dimerized systems. The first one deals with a description of the dimers degrees of freedom in an SO(4) manifold, while the second one provides a path-integral for the bond-operators introduced by Sachdev and Bhatt. The path-integral quantization is performed using the Faddeev-Jackiw symplectic formalism for constrained systems, such that the measures and constraints that result from the algebra of the operators is provided in both cases. As an example we consider a spin-Peierls chain, and show how to arrive at the corresponding field-theory, starting with both a SO(4) formulation and bond-operators.

cond-mat.str-el

Spin exchange and superconductivity in a $t-J'-V$ model for two-dimensional quarter-filled systems

The effect of antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations on two-dimensional quarter-filled systems is studied theoretically. An effective $t-J'-V$ model on a square lattice which accounts for checkerboard charge fluctuations and next-nearest-neighbors antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations is considered. From calculations based on large-N theory on this model it is found that the exchange interaction, $J'$, increases the attraction between electrons in the d$_{xy}$ channel only, so that both charge and spin fluctuations work cooperatively to produce d$_{xy}$ pairing.

cond-mat.str-el

Large-N expansion based on the Hubbard-operator path integral representation and its application to the $t-J$ model

In the present work we have developed a large-N expansion for the $t-J$ model based on the path integral formulation for Hubbard-operators. Our large-N expansion formulation contains diagrammatic rules, in which the propagators and vertex are written in term of Hubbard operators. Using our large-N formulation we have calculated, for J=0, the renormalized $O(1/N)$ boson propagator. We also have calculated the spin-spin and charge-charge correlation functions to leading order 1/N. We have compared our diagram technique and results with the existing ones in the literature.

cond-mat.str-el