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Lizardo H. C. M. Nunes

Publications and source records attributed to Lizardo H. C. M. Nunes.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2020

Effects of a Magnetic Field on Superconductivity and Quantum Criticality in Quasi-Two-Dimensional Systems with Dirac Electrons

We study the effects of an external magnetic field on thensuperconducting phase diagram of a quasi-two-dimensional system of Dirac electrons at an arbitrary temperature. At zero temperature, there is a quantum phase transition connecting a normal and a superconducting phase, occurring at a critical line that corresponds to a magnetic field dependent critical coupling parameter, which should be observed in planar materials containing Dirac electrons, such as $Cu_xTiSe_2$. Moreover, the superconducting gap is obtained as a function of temperature, magnetic field and coupling parameter ($λ_{\rm R}$). From this, we extract the critical magnetic field $ B_{ c } $ as a function of the temperature. For small values of $ B_{ c } $, we obtain a linear decay of the critical field, which is similar to the behavior observed experimentally in the copper doped dichalcogenide $Cu_xTiSe_2$ and also in intercalated graphite.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

From the spin-fermion model to anisotropic superconductivity

We use the spin-fermion model to describe the CuO$_2$ planes of the high-Tc superconductors. Using a large wavelength approach, we show that the ferromagnetic component of the Cu spin fluctuations couple to the oxygen holes producing a pairing interaction that leads to a superconducting gap whose symmetry is determined by the anisotropy of the Kondo interaction. We calculate Tc as a function of the hole concentration in a mean-field approximation and our numerical results are in good agreement with the experiments.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

Nonextensive thermodynamics applied to superconductivity

We have shown that the weak-coupling limit superconductors are well described by $ q \sim 1 $, where $ q $ is a real parameter which characterizes the degree of nonextensivity of Tsallis' entropy. Nevertheless, small deviations with respect to q=1 provide better agreement when compared with experimental results. We have also shown that the generalized BCS theory with $ q \neq 1 $ exhibit power-law behavior of several measurable macroscopic functions in the low-temperature regime. These power-law properties are found in many high-Tc oxides superconductors and motivated us to extend Tsallis' entropy calculations to these systems. Therefore, we have calculated the phase diagram and the specific heat and we compare our results with the experimental data for the YBCO compound.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

Competing effective interactions of Dirac electrons in the Spin-Fermion system

Recently discovered advanced materials, such as heavy fermions, frequently exhibit a rich phase diagram suggesting the presence of different competing interactions. A unified description of the origin of these multiple interactions, albeit very important for the comprehension of such materials is, in general not available. It would be therefore very useful to have a simple model where the common source of different interactions could be possibly traced back. In this work we consider a system consisting in a set of localized spins on a square lattice with antiferromagnetic nearest neighbors interactions and itinerant electrons, which are assumed to be Dirac-like and interact with the localized spins through a Kondo magnetic interaction. This system is conveniently described by the Spin-Fermion model, which we use in order to determine the effective interactions among the itinerant electrons. By integrating out the localized degrees of freedom we obtain a set of different interactions, which includes: a BCS-like superconducting term, a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio-like, excitonic term and a spin-spin magnetic term. The resulting phase diagram is investigated by evaluation of the mean-field free-energy as a function of the relevant order parameters. This shows the competition of the above interactions, depending on the temperature, chemical potential and coupling constants.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2020

Superconductor-insulator transition induced by pressure within the X-boson approach

The pressure induced superconducting phase diagram is calculated for an extension of the periodic Anderson model (PAM) in the $ U = \infty $ limit taking into account the effect of a nearest neighbor attractive interaction between f-electrons. We analyze the role of the chemical potential compared to several plots of the f-band density of states and we also found a superconductor-insulator transition induced by pressure when the chemical potential crosses the hybridization gap.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2020

A quantum critical superconducting phase transition in quasi-two-dimensional systems with Dirac electrons

We present a theory describing the superconducting (SC) interaction of Dirac electrons in a quasi-two-dimensional system consisting of a stack of N planes. The occurrence of a SC phase is investigated both at T = 0 and T 5 0. At T = 0, we find a quantum phase transition connecting the normal and SC phases. Our theory qualitatively reproduces the SC phase transition occurring in the underdoped regime of the high-Tc cuprates. This fact points to the possible relevance of Dirac electrons in the mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2020

Study of the Kondo and high-temperature limits of the slave-boson and X-boson methods

In this Letter we study the periodic Anderson model, employing both the slave-boson and the X-boson approaches in the mean field approximation. We investigate the breakdown of the slave-boson at intermediate temperatures when the total occupation number of particles Nt = Nf + Nc is keep constant, where Nf and Nc are respectively the occupation numbers of the localized and conduction electrons, and we show that the high-temperature limit of the slave-boson is Nf = Nc = Nt /2. We also compare the results of the two approaches in the Kondo limit and we show that at low-temperatures the X-boson exhibits a phase transition, from the Kondo heavy fermion (K-HF) regime to a local moment magnetic regime (LMM).

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2020

Antiferromagnetic phase diagram of the cuprate superconductors

Taking the spin-fermion model as the starting point for describing the cuprate superconductors, we obtain an effective nonlinear sigma-field hamiltonian, which takes into account the effect of doping in the system. We obtain an expression for the spin-wave velocity as a function of the chemical potential. For appropriate values of the parameters we determine the antiferromagnetic phase diagram for the YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$ compound as a function of the dopant concentration in good agreement with the experimental data. Furthermore, our approach provides a unified description for the phase diagrams of the hole-doped and the electron doped compounds, which is consistent with the remarkable similarity between the phase diagrams of these compounds, since we have obtained the suppression of the antiferromagnetic phase as the modulus of the chemical potential increases. The aforementioned result then follows by considering positive values of the chemical potential related to the addition of holes to the system, while negative values correspond to the addition of electrons.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

Temperature vs. doping phase diagram of cuprate superconductors

Starting from a spin-fermion model for the cuprate superconductors, we obtain an effective interaction for the charge carriers by integrating out the spin degrees of freedom. Our model predicts a quantum critical point for the superconducting interaction coupling, which sets up a threshold for the onset of superconductivity in the system. We show that the physical value of this coupling is below this threshold, thus explaining why there is no superconducting phase for the undoped system. Then, by including doping, we find a dome-shaped dependence of the critical temperature as charge carriers are added to the system, in agreement with the experimental phase diagram. The superconducting critical temperature is calculated without adjusting any free parameter and yields, at optimal doping $ T_c \sim $ 45 K, which is comparable to the experimental data.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

Flat band superconductivity in the square-octagon lattice

The discovery of superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene has triggered a resurgence of interest in flat-band superconductivity. Here, we investigate the square-octagon lattice, which also exhibits two perfectly flat bands when next-nearest neighbour hopping or an external magnetic field are added to the system. We calculate the superconducting phase diagram in the presence of on-site attractive interactions and find two superconducting domes, as observed in several types of unconventional superconductors. The critical temperature shows a linear dependence on the coupling constant, suggesting that superconductivity might reach high temperatures in the square-octagon lattice. Our model could be experimentally realized using photonic or ultracold atoms lattices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

Superconducting and Pseudogap Transition Temperatures in High-Tc Cuprates and the $T_{c}$ Dependence on Pressure

We derive analytic expressions for the critical temperatures of the superconducting (SC) and pseudogap (PG) transitions of the high-Tc cuprates as a function of doping. These are in excellent agreement with the experimental data both for single-layered materials such as LSCO, Bi2201 and Hg1201 and multi-layered ones, such as Bi2212, Bi2223, Hg1212 and Hg1223. Optimal doping occurs when the chemical potential vanishes, thus leading to an universal expression for the optimal SC transition temperatures. This allows for the obtainment of a quantitative description of the growth of such temperatures with the number of layers, N, which accurately applies to the $Bi$, $Hg$ and $Tl$ families of cuprates. We study the pressure dependence of the SC transition temperatures, obtaining excellent agreement with the experimental data for different materials and dopings. These results are obtained from an effective Hamiltonian for the itinerant oxygen holes, which includes both the electric repulsion between them and their magnetic interactions with the localized copper ions. We show that the former interaction is responsible for the SC and the latter, for the PG phases, the phase diagram of cuprates resulting from the competition of both. The Hamiltonian is defined on a bipartite oxygen lattice, which results from the fact that only the $p_x$ and $p_y$ oxygen orbitals alternatively hybridize with the $3d$ copper orbitals. From this, we can provide an unified explanation for the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ symmetry of both the SC and PG order parameters and obtain the Fermi pockets observed in ARPES experiments.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2019

The Superconducting and Pseudogap Phase Diagram of High-Tc Cuprates

We derive analytic expressions for the critical temperatures of the superconducting (SC) and pseudogap (PG) phases of the high-Tc cuprates, which are in excellent agreement with the experimental data for single-layered materials such as LSCO, Bi2201 and Hg1201. Our effective Hamiltonian, defined in the oxygen square sub-lattices formed by the alternate hybridization of $p_x$ and $p_y$ orbitals with the $3d$ copper orbitals, provides an unified explanation for the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ symmetry of both the SC and PG order parameters. Attractive and repulsive interactions involve holes of the two different sublattices and can be derived from the spin-fermion model. Optimal doping occurs when the chemical potential vanishes. For $N$-layered cuprates, the growth of the optimal temperature with $N$, as well as the trend of the SC and AF domes to superimpose, can be simply understood. Our results for the optimal SC transition temperature are in excellent agreement with the experiments for $N=2$ materials of the $Bi$ and $Hg$ families. For $N=3$ the agreement is still satisfactory, while for $N>3$, it becomes poor. The explanation for these facts allows us to suggest a method for increasing the critical SC temperature in cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2011

Competing superconducting, magnetic and charge orderings in the AF Heisenberg-Kondo lattice with Dirac electrons

Many recently discovered advanced materials, such as high-Tc cuprates, iron pnictides and several heavy-fermions, exhibit a rich phase diagram suggesting the presence of different competing interactions that would lead to various types of ordering. Nevertheless, there is not yet a clear unifying picture allowing the understanding of the detailed mechanisms that generate such competing interactions. Having such a picture, however, could quite well be at the very roots of the requirements for understanding high-Tc superconductivity in cuprates and pnictides, for instance. In this work we consider the antiferromagnetic (AF) Heisenberg-Kondo lattice, consisting of localized spins with AF exchange interactions between nearest neighbors on a square lattice and itinerant electrons, which undergo a magnetic Kondo interaction with the localized spins, but are otherwise non-interacting. Using the Schwinger-boson (CP$^1$) formalism and assuming the electrons are Dirac-like, we integrate on the localized degrees of freedom thereby obtaining the effective interaction among the itinerant electrons. This contains a BCS-like superconducting term, a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio-like, charge gap term and a Ising and Heisenberg-like magnetic terms. All these four competing interactions, therefore are generated by the original Kondo magnetic interaction.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2011

Superconductivity in graphene stacks: from the bilayer to graphite

We study the superconducting phase transition, both in a graphene bilayer and in graphite. For that purpose we derive the mean-field effective potential for a stack of graphene layers presenting hopping between adjacent sheets. For describing superconductivity, we assume there is an on-site attractive interaction between electrons and determine the superconducting critical temperature as a function of the chemical potential. This displays a dome-shaped curve, in agreement with previous results for two-dimensional Dirac fermions. We show that the hopping between adjacent layers increases the critical temperature for small values of the chemical potential. Finally, we consider a minimal model for graphite and show that the transition temperature is higher than that for the graphene bilayer for small values of chemical potential. This might explain why intrinsic superconductivity is observed in graphite.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2011

Superconducting and excitonic quantum phase transitions in doped systems with Dirac electrons

Material systems with Dirac electrons on a bipartite planar lattice and possessing superconducting and excitonic interactions are investigated both in the half-filling and doped regimes at zero temperature. Excitonic pairing is the analog of chiral symmetry breaking of relativistic fermion theories and produces an insulating gap in the electronic spectrum. Condensed matter systems with such competing interactions display phenomena that are analogous to the onset of the chiral condensate and of color superconductivity in dense quark matter. Evaluation of the free-energy (effective potential) allows us to map the phases of the system for different values of the couplings of each interaction. At half-filling, we show that Cooper pairs and excitons can coexist if the superconducting and excitonic interactions strengths are equal and above a quantum critical point, which is evaluated. If one of the interactions is stronger than the other, then only the corresponding order parameter is non-vanishing and we do not have coexistence. For nonzero values of chemical potential, the phase diagram for each interaction is obtained independently. Taking into account only the excitonic interaction, a critical chemical potential, as a function of the interaction strength, is obtained. If only the superconducting interaction is considered, the superconducting gap displays a characteristic dome as charge carriers are doped into the system and our results qualitatively reproduce the superconducting phase diagram of several compounds, like 122 pnictides and cuprate superconductors. We also analyze the possibility of coexistence between Cooper pairs and excitons and we show that, even if the excitonic interaction strength is greater than the superconducting interaction, as the chemical potential increases, superconductivity tends to suppress the excitonic order parameter.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2007

Magnetic Field Effects on the Superconducting and Quantum Critical Properties of Layered Systems with Dirac Electrons

We study the effects of an external magnetic field on the superconducting properties of a quasi-two-dimensional system of Dirac electrons at an arbitrary temperature. An explicit expression for the superconducting gap is obtained as a function of temperature, magnetic field and coupling parameter ($λ_{\rm R}$). From this, we extract the $B \times λ_{\rm R}$, $T\times λ_{\rm R}$ and $B \times T$ phase diagrams. The last one shows a linear decay of the critical field for small values thereof, which is similar to the behavior observed experimentally in the copper doped dichalcogenide $Cu_xTiSe_2$ and also in intercalated graphite. The second one, presents a coupling dependent critical temperature $T_c$ that resembles the one observed in high-$T_c$ cuprates in the underdoped region and also in $Cu_xTiSe_2$. The first one, exhibits a quantum phase transition connecting a normal and a superconducting phase, occurring at a critical line that corresponds to a magnetic field dependent critical coupling parameter. This should be observed in planar materials containing Dirac electrons, such as $Cu_xTiSe_2$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2006

Quantum Criticality and Superconductivity in Quasi-Two-Dimensional Dirac Electronic Systems

We present a theory describing the superconducting (SC) interaction of Dirac electrons in a quasi-two-dimensional system consisting of a stack of N planes. The occurrence of a SC phase is investigated both at T=0 and T\neq 0, in the case of a local interaction, when the theory must be renormalized and also in the situation where a natural physical cutoff is present in the system. In both cases, at T=0, we find a quantum phase transition connecting the normal and SC phases at a certain critical coupling. The phase structure is shown to be robust against quantum fluctuations. The SC gap is determined for T=0 and T\neq 0, both with and without a physical cutoff and the interplay between the gap and the SC order parameter is discussed. Our theory qualitatively reproduces the SC phase transition occurring in the underdoped regime of the high-Tc cuprates. This fact points to the possible relevance of Dirac electrons in the mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗