arXiv subjects

D. LeBoeuf

Publications and source records attributed to D. LeBoeuf.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Onset field for Fermi-surface reconstruction in the cuprate superconductor YBCO

Quantum oscillations and negative Hall and Seebeck coefficients at low temperature and high magnetic field have shown the Fermi surface of underdoped cuprates to contain a small closed electron pocket. It is thought to result from a reconstruction by charge order, but whether it is the order seen by NMR and ultrasound above a threshold field or the short-range modulations seen by X-ray diffraction in zero field is unclear. Here we use measurements of the thermal Hall conductivity in YBCO to show that Fermi-surface reconstruction occurs only above a sharply defined onset field, equal to the transition field seen in ultrasound. This reveals that electrons do not experience long-range broken translational symmetry in the zero-field ground state, and hence in zero field there is no quantum critical point for the onset of charge order as a function of doping.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Evidence for a small hole pocket in the Fermi surface of underdoped YBa2Cu3Oy

The Fermi surface of a metal is the fundamental basis from which its properties can be understood. In underdoped cuprate superconductors, the Fermi surface undergoes a reconstruction that produces a small electron pocket, but whether there is another, as yet undetected portion to the Fermi surface is unknown. Establishing the complete topology of the Fermi surface is key to identifying the mechanism responsible for its reconstruction. Here we report the discovery of a second Fermi pocket in underdoped YBa2Cu3Oy, detected as a small quantum oscillation frequency in the thermoelectric response and in the c-axis resistance. The field-angle dependence of the frequency demonstrates that it is a distinct Fermi surface and the normal-state thermopower requires it to be a hole pocket. A Fermi surface consisting of one electron pocket and two hole pockets with the measured areas and masses is consistent with a Fermi-surface reconstruction caused by the charge-density-wave order observed in YBa2Cu3Oy, provided other parts of the reconstructed Fermi surface are removed by a separate mechanism, possibly the pseudogap.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Direct measurement of the upper critical field in a cuprate superconductor

The upper critical field Hc2 is a fundamental measure of the pairing strength, yet there is no agreement on its magnitude and doping dependence in cuprate superconductors. We have used thermal conductivity as a direct probe of Hc2 in the cuprates YBa2Cu3Oy and YBa2Cu4O8 to show that there is no vortex liquid at T = 0, allowing us to use high-field resistivity measurements to map out the doping dependence of Hc2 across the phase diagram. Hc2(p) exhibits two peaks, each located at a critical point where the Fermi surface undergoes a transformation. The condensation energy obtained directly from Hc2, and previous Hc1 data, undergoes a 20-fold collapse below the higher critical point. These data provide quantitative information on the impact of competing phases in suppressing superconductivity in cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

NMR study of electronic correlations in Mn-doped Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 and BaFe(As1-xPx)2

We probe the real space electronic response to a local magnetic impurity in isovalent and heterovalent doped BaFe2As2 (122) using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). The local moments carried by Mn impurities doped into Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2(Co-122) and BaFe(As1-xPx)2(P-122) at optimal doping induce a spin polarization in the vicinity of the impurity. The amplitude, shape and extension of this polarisation is given by the real part of the susceptibility chi'(r) of FeAs layers, and is consequently related to the nature and strength of the electronic correlations present in the system. We study this polarisation using 75As NMR in Co-122 and both 75As and 31P NMR in P-122. The NMR spectra of Mn-doped materials is made of two essential features. First is a satellite line associated with nuclei located as nearest neighbor of Mn impurities. The analysis of the temperature dependence of the shift of this satellite line shows that Mn local moments behave as isolated Curie moments. The second feature is a temperature dependent broadening of the central line. We show that the broadening of the central line follows the susceptibility of Mn local moments, as expected from typical RKKY-like interactions. This demonstrates that the susceptibility chi'(r) of FeAs layers does not make significant contribution to the temperature dependent broadening of the central line. chi'(r) is consequently only weakly temperature dependent in optimally doped Co-122 and P-122. This behaviour is in contrast with that of strongly correlated materials such as underdoped cuprate high-Tc superconductors where the central line broadens faster than the impurity susceptibility grows, because of the development of strong magnetic correlations when T is lowered. Moreover, the FeAs layer susceptibility is found quantitatively similar in both heterovalent doped and isolvalent doped BaFe2As2.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Irreversibility and time relaxation in electrostatic doping of oxide interfaces

Two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) confined in quantum wells at insulating oxide interfaces have attracted much attention as their electronic properties display a rich physics with various electronics orders such as superconductivity and magnetism. A particularly exciting features of these hetero-structures lies in the possibility to control their electronic properties by electrostatic gating, opening up new opportunities for the development of oxide based electronics. However, unexplained gating hysteresis and time relaxation of the 2DEG resistivity have been reported in some bias range, raising the question of the precise role of the gate voltage. Here we show that in LaTiO3/SrTiO3 and LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures, above a filling threshold, electrons irreversibly escape out of the well. This mechanism, which is directly responsible for the hysteresis and time relaxation, can be entirely described by a simple analytical model derived in this letter. Our results highlight the crucial role of the gate voltage both on the shape and the filling of the quantum well. They also demonstrate that it is possible to achieve a low-carrier density regime in a semiconductor limit, whereas the high-carrier density regime is intrinsically limited.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Two-dimensional superconductivity induced by high-mobility carrier doping in LaTiO3/SrTiO3 hetero-structures

In this letter, we show that a superconducting two-dimensional electron gas is formed at the LaTiO3/SrTiO3 interface whose transition temperature can be modulated by a back-gate voltage. The gas consists of two types of carriers : a majority of low-mobility carriers always present, and a few high-mobility ones that can be injected by electrostatic doping. The calculation of the electrons spatial distribution in the confinement potential shows that the high-mobility electrons responsible for superconductivity set at the edge of the gas whose extension can be tuned by field effect.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

A de Haas-van Alphen study of the Fermi surfaces of superconducting LiFeP and LiFeAs

We report a de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) oscillation study of the 111 iron pnictide superconductors LiFeAs with T_c ~18K and LiFeP with T_c~5K. We find that for both compounds the Fermi surface topology is in good agreement with density functional band-structure calculations and shows quasi-nested electron and hole bands. The effective masses generally show significant enhancement, up to ~3 for LiFeP and ~5 for LiFeAs. However, one hole Fermi surface in LiFeP shows a very small enhancement, as compared with its other sheets. This difference probably results from k-dependent coupling to spin fluctuations and may be the origin of the different nodal and nodeless superconducting gap structures in LiFeP and LiFeAs respectively.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Reply to Comment by Borisenko et al. on article `A de Haas-van Alphen study of the Fermi surfaces of superconducting LiFeP and LiFeAs'

Recently, Borisenko et al have posted a Comment (arXiv:1108.1159) where they suggest an alternative interpretation of our de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) measurements on the superconductor LiFeAs. In our original paper (arXiv:1107.4375) we concluded that our measurements of the bulk Fermi surface were not consistent with the surface bands observed thus far by ARPES. Borisenko et al dispute this and suggest the two measurements are consistent if some of the orbits we observe are due to magnetic breakdown. We argue here that this scenario is inconsistent with the experimental data and therefore that our original conclusion stands.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Fermi-surface reconstruction and two-carrier model for the Hall effect in YBa2Cu4O8

Pulsed field measurements of the Hall resistivity and magnetoresistance of underdoped YBa2Cu4O8 are analyzed self-consistently using a simple model based on coexisting electron and hole carriers. The resultant mobilities and Hall numbers are found to vary markedly with temperature. The conductivity of the hole carriers drops by one order of magnitude below 30 K, explaining the absence of quantum oscillations from these particular pockets. Meanwhile the Hall coefficient of the electron carriers becomes strongly negative below 50 K. The overall quality of the fits not only provides strong evidence for Fermi-surface reconstruction in Y-based cuprates, it also strongly constrains the type of reconstruction that might be occurring.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

de Haas-van Alphen oscillations in the underdoped cuprate YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.5}$

The de Haas-van Alphen effect was observed in the underdoped cuprate YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.5}$ via a torque technique in pulsed magnetic fields up to 59 T. Above an irreversibility field of $\sim$30 T, the magnetization exhibits clear quantum oscillations with a single frequency of 540 T and a cyclotron mass of 1.76 times the free electron mass, in excellent agreement with previously observed Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. The oscillations obey the standard Lifshitz-Kosevich formula of Fermi-liquid theory. This thermodynamic observation of quantum oscillations confirms the existence of a well-defined, close and coherent, Fermi surface in the pseudogap phase of cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2007

Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in YBa_2Cu_4O_8

We report the observation of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the underdoped cuprate superconductor YBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$ (Y124). For field aligned along the c-axis, the frequency of the oscillations is $660\pm 30$ T, which corresponds to $\sim 2.4$ % of the total area of the first Brillouin zone. The effective mass of the quasiparticles on this orbit is measured to be $2.7\pm0.3$ times the free electron mass. Both the frequency and mass are comparable to those recently observed for ortho-II YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.5}$ (Y123-II). We show that although small Fermi surface pockets may be expected from band structure calculations in Y123-II, no such pockets are predicted for Y124. Our results therefore imply that these small pockets are a generic feature of the copper oxide plane in underdoped cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗