arXiv subjects

Marco Grilli

Publications and source records attributed to Marco Grilli.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The charge density fluctuations and the Shrinking Fermi Liquid scenario for strange metallicity in cuprates

We interpret the strange metal (SM) properties of slightly overdoped cuprates in terms of the recently proposed Shrinking Fermi Liquid theory. This is based on the pervading presence in the cuprate phase diagram of charge density fluctuations (CDF), which have been identified and characterized in RIXS. These fluctuations are abundant and have a low energy due to the proximity of the charge density wave quantum critical point hidden under the superconducting dome of cuprates, but have a short range and non-critical character with a finite energy M/\gamma ~10 meV as measured above Tc. Here M~ \xi^-2 is determined by the short correlation length \xi, while \gamma encodes the Landau damping ruling the lifetime of the charge fluctuations. Besides these low energy CDF, cuprates also display phonons and a broad continuum of particle-hole excitations, mostly due to spin paramagnons arising from their strongly correlated character. With these experimentally characterized ingredients we show that above Tc the SM properties in transport are well described in terms of fermionic Landau quasiparticles scattering with CDF and phonons. The optical properties can instead be interpreted by the combined effect of low energy CDF determining the temperature dependence, and of the paramagnon continuum determining a linear in frequency scattering rate. Remarkably, the combined effect of these simple ingredients also induces \omega/T scaling properties for frequencies larger than M/\gamma. When superconductivity is suppressed by strong magnetic fields the SM properties extend down to a few Kelvin. By assuming that the CDF dissipation parameter \gamma grows logarithmically by lowering T, we account for all anomalous transport and thermodynamic properties of cuprates (specific heat, Seebeck, heat transport, resistivity, and magnetoresistance) thereby providing a consistent scenario for the SM phase of cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Decoherence of Majorana zero modes mediated by gapless fermions

We study the decoherence of a collection of Majorana zero modes weakly coupled to a gapless reservoir of non-interacting fermions. Using the Born-Markov approximation, we derive a Lindblad master equation for the dissipative dynamics of the Majorana zero modes. Due to the long-range coupling between Majorana zero modes mediated by the gapless reservoir, the Lindblad jump operators are non-local linear combinations of the Majorana operators. We show that, as a consequence, the dissipative dynamics can exhibit long relaxation times, i.e. a slow decay of fermion parities. A spectral analysis of the Liouvillian shows that the slow-down is suppressed as a power law of the distance between Majorana zero modes. Finally, we validate the Lindblad equation by comparison with unbiased numerical simulations of the time evolution of the full density matrix. In particular, these illustrate that non-Markovian dynamics establishes non-local correlations at small times.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Superfluid response of two-dimensional filamentary superconductors

Different classes of low-dimensional superconducting systems exhibit an inhomogeneous filamentary superconducting condensate whose macroscopic coherence still needs to be fully investigated and understood. Here we present a thorough analysis of the superfluid response of a prototypical filamentary superconductor embedded in a {two-dimensional} metallic matrix. By mapping the system into an exactly solvable random impedance network, we show how the dissipative (reactive) response of the system non-trivially depends on both the macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the metallic (superconducting) fraction. We compare our calculations with resonant-microwave transport measurements performed on LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ heterostructures over an extended range of temperatures and carrier densities finding that the filamentary character of superconductivity accounts for unusual peculiar features of the experimental data.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Quantum zero point electromagnetic energy difference between the superconducting and the normal phase in a HTc superconducting metal bulk sample

We provide a novel methodological approach to the estimate of the change of the Quantum Vacuum electromagnetic energy density in a High critical Temperature superconducting metal bulk sample, when it undergoes the transition in temperature, from the superconducting to the normal phase. The various contributions to the Casimir energy in the two phases are highlighted and compared. While the TM polarization of the vacuum mode allows for a macroscopic description of the superconducting transition, the changes in the TE vacuum mode induced by the superconductive correlations are introduced within a microscopic model, which does not explicitly take into account the anisotropic structure of the material.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Raman response in the nematic phase of FeSe

Raman experiments on bulk FeSe revealed that the low-frequency part of $B_{1g}$ Raman response $R_{B_{1g}}$, which probes nematic fluctuations, rapidly decreases below the nematic transition at $T_n \sim 85$K. Such behavior is usually associated with the gap opening and at a first glance is inconsistent with the fact that FeSe remains a metal below $T_n$, with sizable hole and electron pockets. We argue that the drop of $R_{B_{1g}}$ in a nematic metal comes about because the nematic order drastically changes the orbital content of the pockets and makes them nearly mono-orbital. In this situation $B_{1g}$ Raman response gets reduced by the same vertex corrections that enforce charge conservation. The reduction holds at low frequencies and gives rise to gap-like behavior of $R_{B_{1g}}$, in full agreement with the experimental data.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Effect of the Anomalous Diffusion of Fluctuating Cooper Pairs in the Density of States of Superconducting NbN Thin Films

Recent scanning tunnelling microscopy experiments in NbN thin disordered superconducting films found an emergent inhomogeneity at the scale of tens of nanometers. This inhomogeneity is mirrored by an apparent dimensional crossover in the paraconductivity measured in transport above the superconducting critical temperature $T_c$. This behavior was interpreted in terms of an anomalous diffusion of fluctuating Cooper pairs, that display a {\em quasi-confinement} (i.e., a slowing down of their diffusive dynamics) on length scales shorter than the inhomogeneity identified by tunnelling experiments. Here we assume this anomalous diffusive behavior of fluctuating Cooper pairs and calculate the effect of these fluctuations on the electron density of states above $T_c$. We find that the density of states is substantially suppressed up to temperatures well above $T_c$. This behavior, which is closely reminiscent of a pseudogap, only arises from the anomalous diffusion of fluctuating Cooper pairs in the absence of stable preformed pairs, setting the stage for an intermediate behavior between the two common paradigms in the superconducting-insulator transition, namely the localisation of Cooper pairs (the so-called bosonic scenario) and the breaking of Cooper pairs into unpaired electrons due to strong disorder (the so-called fermionic scenario).

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Nematic fluctuations and the magneto-structural phase transition in ${\rm Ba(Fe_{1-x}Co_x)_2As_2}$

An inelastic light (Raman) scattering study of nematicity and critical fluctuations in ${\rm Ba(Fe_{1-x}Co_x)_2As_2}$ ($0\le x \le 0.051$) is presented. It is shown that the response from fluctuations appears only in $B_{1g}$ (${x^2-y^2}$) symmetry. The scattering amplitude increases towards the structural transition at $T_s$ but vanishes only below the magnetic ordering transition at $T_{\rm SDW} < T_s$, suggesting a magnetic origin of the fluctuations. The theoretical analysis explains the selection rules and the temperature dependence of the fluctuation response. These results make magnetism the favorite candidate for driving the series of transitions.%Below $T_{\rm SDW}$ the gap of the magnetically ordered phase opens up.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Glue function of optimally and overdoped cuprates from inversion of the Raman spectra

We address the issue of identifying the mediators of effective interactions in cuprates superconductors. Specifically, we use inversion theory to analyze Raman spectra of optimally and over-doped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ samples. This allows us to extract the so-called glue function without making any a priori assumption based on any specific model. We use instead two different techniques, namely the singular value decomposition and a multi-rectangle decomposition. With both techniques we find consistent results showing that: i) two distinct excitations are responsible for the glue function, which have completely different doping dependence. One excitation becomes weak above optimal doping, where on the contrary the other keeps (or even slightly increases) its strength; ii) there is a marked temperature dependence on the weight and spectral distribution of these excitation, which therefore must have a somewhat critical character. It is quite natural to identify and characterize these two distinct excitations as damped antiferromagnetic spin waves and damped charge density waves, respectively. This sets the stage for a scenario in which superconductivity is concomitant and competing with a charge ordering instability.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Intrinsic spin Hall effect in systems with striped spin-orbit coupling

The Rashba spin-orbit coupling arising from structure inversion asymmetry couples spin and momentum degrees of freedom providing a suitable (and very intensively investigated) environment for spintronic effects and devices. Here we show that in the presence of strong disorder, non-homogeneity in the spin-orbit coupling gives rise to a finite spin Hall conductivity in contrast with the corresponding case of a homogeneous linear spin-orbit coupling. In particular, we examine the inhomogeneity arising from a striped structure for a two-dimensional electron gas, affecting both density and Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We suggest that this situation can be realized at oxide interfaces with periodic top gating.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Disordered loops in the two-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin-fermion model

The spin-fermion model has long been used to describe the quantum-critical behavior of 2d electron systems near an antiferromagnetic (AFM) instability. Recently, the standard procedure to integrate out the fermions to obtain an effective action for spin waves has been questioned in the clean case. We show that in the presence of disorder, the single fermion loops display two crossover scales: upon lowering the energy, the singularities of the clean fermionic loops are first cut off, but below a second scale new singularities arise that lead again to marginal scaling. In addition, impurity lines between different fermion loops generate new relevant couplings which dominate at low energies. We outline a non-linear sigma model formulation of the single-loop problem, which allows to control the higher singularities and provides an effective model in terms of low-energy diffusive as well as spin modes.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Renormalization group analysis of the quantum non-linear sigma model with a damping term

We investigate the behavior of the zero-temperature quantum non-linear sigma model in d dimensions in the presence of a damping term of the form f(w)~ |w|^alpha, with 1 \le alpha <2. We find two fixed points: a spin-wave fixed point FP1 showing a dynamic scaling exponent z=1 and a dissipative fixed point FP2 with z>1. In the framework of the ε-expansion it is seen that there is a range of values alpha_*(d) \le alpha \le 2 where the point FP1 is stable with respect to FP2, so that the system realizes a z=1 quantum critical behavior even in the presence of a dissipative term. However, reasonable arguments suggest that in d=2 this range is very narrow. In the broken symmetry phase we discuss a phenomenological scaling approach, treating damping as a perturbation of the ordered ground state. The relation of these results with the pseudogap effect observed in underdoped layered cuprates is discussed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Small polaron formation in many-particle states of the Hubbard-Holstein model: The one-dimensional case

We investigate polaron formation in a many-electron system in the presence of a local repulsion sufficiently strong to prevent local-bipolaron formation. Specifically, we consider a Hubbard-Holstein model of interacting electrons coupled to dispersionless phonons of frequency $ω_0$. Numerically solving the model in a small one-dimensional cluster, we find that in the nearly adiabatic case $ω_0 < t$, the necessary and sufficient condition for the polaronic regime to occur is that the energy gain in the atomic (i.e., extremely localized) regime ${\cal E}_{pol}$ overcomes the energy of the purely electronic system $ {\cal E}_{el}$. In the antiadiabatic case, $ω_0 > t$, polaron formation is instead driven by the condition of a large ionic displacement $g/ω_0 >1$ ($g$ being the electron-phonon coupling). Dynamical properties of the model in the weak and moderately strong coupling regimes are also analyzed.

cond-mat.str-el↗