arXiv subjects

R. S. Markiewicz

Publications and source records attributed to R. S. Markiewicz.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

A model for intertwined orders in cuprates

We model the intertwined orders in the cuprate pseudogap as a textured antiferromagnet (AFM), where the texture arises from confining competing phases on topological defects, i.e., arrays of AFM domain walls. Three branches of texture are found, which can be interpreted as a strongly frustrated remnant of an underlying eutectoid phase diagram. This model can describe many key features of intertwined orders in cuprates, including the trisected superconducting dome, and provides clear evidence for a doping/hopping-parameter-dependent Mott-Slater transition in cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Recycling failed photoelectrons via tertiary photoemission

A key insight of Einstein's theory of the photoelectric effect is that a minimum energy is required for photoexcited electrons to escape from a material. For the past century it has been assumed that photoexcited electrons of lower energies make no contribution to the photoemission spectrum. Here we demonstrate the conceptual possibility that the energy of these 'failed' photoelectrons-primary or secondary-can be partially recycled to generate new 'tertiary' electrons of energy sufficient to escape. Such a 'recycling' step goes beyond the traditional three steps of the photoemission process (excitation, transport, and escape), and, as we illustrate, it can be realized through a novel Auger mechanism that involves three distinct minority electronic states in the material. We develop a phenomenological three-band model to treat this mechanism within a revised four-step framework for photoemission, which contains robust features of linewidth narrowing and population inversion under strong excitation, reminiscent of the lasing phenomena. We show that the conditions for this recycling mechanism are likely satisfied in many quantum materials with multiple flat bands properly located away from the Fermi level, and elaborate on the representative case of SrTiO3 among other promising candidates. We further discuss how this mechanism can explain the recent observation of anomalous intense coherent photoemission from a SrTiO3 surface, and predict its manifestations in related experiments, including the 'forbidden' case of photoemission with photon energies lower than the work function. Our study calls for paradigm shifts across a range of fundamental and applied research fields, especially in the areas of photoemission, photocathodes, and flat-band materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Non-orthogonal Spin-Momentum Locking

Spin-momentum locking is a unique intrinsic feature of strongly spin-orbit coupled materials and a key to their promise of applications in spintronics and quantum computation. Much of the existing work, in topological and non-topological pure materials, has been focused on the orthogonal locking in the vicinity of the $Γ$ point where the directions of spin and momentum vectors are locked perpendicularly. With the orthogonal case, enforced by the symmetry in pure systems, mechanisms responsible for non-orthogonal spin-momentum locking (NOSML) have drawn little attention, although it has been reported on the topological surface of $α$-$Sn$. Here, we demonstrate that, the presence of the spin-orbit scattering from dilute spinless impurities can produce the NOSML state in the presence of a strong intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in the pristine material. We also observe an interesting coupling threshold for the NOSML state to occur. The relevant parameter in our analysis is the deflection angle from orthogonality which can be extracted experimentally from the spin-and-angle-resolved photoemission (S-ARPES) spectra. Our formalism is applicable to all strongly spin-orbit coupled systems with impurities and not limited to topological ones. The understanding of NOSML bears on spin-orbit dependent phenomena, including issues of spin-to-charge conversion and the interpretation of quasiparticle interference (QPI) patterns as well as scanning-tunneling spectra (STS) in general spin-orbit coupled materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Theory of Cuprate Pseudogap as Antiferromagnetic Order with Charged Domain Walls

While magnetic fields generally compete with superconductivity, a type II superconductor can persist to very high fields by confining the field in topological defects, namely vortices. We propose that a similar physics underlies the pseudogap phase in cuprates, where the relevant topological defects are the antiphase domain walls of an underlying antiferromagnetic (AFM) order. A key consequence of this scenario is that the termination of the pseudogap phase should be quantitatively described by the underlying AFM model. We demonstrate that this picture can explain a number of key experimentally observed signatures of the pseudogap phase and how it collapses in the cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Mott-Slater Transition in a Textured Cuprate Antiferromagnet

We generalize the concept of vortex phase in a type II superconductor to textured phases, where certain phases can persist over an extended range of perturbations by confining competing phases on topological defects (the vortices in a superconductor). We apply this model to the pseudogap phase in cuprates, where the relevant topological defects are the antiphase domain walls of an underlying antiferromagnetic (AFM) order. We demonstrate that this model can describe many key features of intertwined orders in cuprates, and most importantly provide the first clear evidence for the Mott-Slater transition in cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Ab initio description of the Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ electronic structure

Bi-based cuprate superconductors are important materials for both fundamental research and applications. As in other cuprates, the superconducting phase in the Bi compounds lies close to an antiferromagnetic phase. Our density functional theory calculations based on the strongly-constrained-and-appropriately-normed (SCAN) exchange correlation functional in Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ reveal the persistence of magnetic moments on the copper ions for oxygen concentrations ranging from the pristine phase to the optimally hole-doped compound. We also find the existence of ferrimagnetic solutions in the heavily doped compounds, which are expected to suppress superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Spectroscopic evidence for electron-boson coupling in electron-doped Sr$_2$IrO$_4$

The pseudogap, d-wave superconductivity and electron-boson coupling are three intertwined key ingredients in the phase diagram of the cuprates. Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ is a 5d-electron counterpart of the cuprates in which both the pseudogap and a d-wave instability have been observed. Here, we report spectroscopic evidence for the presence of the third key player in electron-doped Sr$_2$IrO$_4$: electron-boson coupling. A kink in nodal dispersion is observed with an energy scale of ~50 meV. The strength of the kink changes with doping, but the energy scale remains the same. These results provide the first noncuprate platform for exploring the relationship between the pseudogap, d-wave instability and electron-boson coupling in doped Mott insulators.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Excitonic insulators as a model of $d-d$ and Mott transitions in strongly correlated materials

We show how strongly correlated materials could be described within the framework of an excitonic insulator formalism, and delineate the relationship between inter- and intra-band ordering phenomena. Our microscopic model of excitons clarifies the fundamental role of Van-Hove-singularity-nesting in driving both inter- and intra-band ordering transitions, and uncovers an interesting connection with resonating-valence-bond physics.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Entropic Origin of Pseudogap Physics and a Mott-Slater Transition in Cuprates

We propose a new approach to understand the origin of the pseudogap in the cuprates, in terms of bosonic entropy. The near-simultaneous softening of a large number of different $q$-bosons yields an extended range of short-range order, wherein the growth of magnetic correlations with decreasing temperature $T$ is anomalously slow. These entropic effects cause the spectral weight associated with the Van Hove singularity (VHS) to shift rapidly and nearly linearly toward half filling at higher $T$, consistent with a picture of the VHS driving the pseudogap transition at a temperature $\sim T^*$. As a byproduct, we develop an order-parameter classification scheme that predicts supertransitions between families of order parameters. As one example, we find that by tuning the hopping parameters, it is possible to drive the cuprates across a {\it transition between Mott and Slater physics}, where a spin-frustrated state emerges at the crossover.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Van Hove Singularity as the Driver of Pseudogap Physics in Cuprate High-$T$ Superconductors

We propose a new approach to the pseudogap problem in cuprates. Hole-doped cuprates display a broad plateau in the susceptibility centered near $(π,π)$. Competition between the softening of different $q$-modes on this plateau leads to anomalously slow growth of magnetic correlations with reducing temperature -- i.e., extended ranges of short-range correlations. The plateau arises from competition between Fermi- surface nesting and a `hidden' Van Hove singularity (VHS) nesting, associated with a bulk contribution to the susceptibility. As such, the VHS contribution is not tied to the Fermi level but rather turns on near $T_{VHS}=(E_F-E_{VHS})/k_B$ [where $E_F$ is the Fermi energy and $E_{VHS}$ the energy of the VHS peak]. Identifying $T^*\simeq T_{VHS}$ can explain many characteristic features of the pseudogap, including the transport anomalies and the termination of the pseudogap when $E_{VHS}$ crosses the Fermi level.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Spectroscopic evidence for negative electronic compressibility in a quasi-three-dimensional spin-orbit correlated metal

Negative compressibility is a sign of thermodynamic instability of open or non-equilibrium systems. In quantum materials consisting of multiple mutually coupled subsystems, the compressibility of one subsystem can be negative if it is countered by positive compressibility of the others. Manifestations of this effect have so far been limited to low-dimensional dilute electron systems. Here we present evidence from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) for negative electronic compressibility (NEC) in the quasi-three-dimensional (3D) spin-orbit correlated metal (Sr1-xLax)3Ir2O7. Increased electron filling accompanies an anomalous decrease of the chemical potential, as indicated by the overall movement of the deep valence bands. Such anomaly, suggestive of NEC, is shown to be primarily driven by the lowering in energy of the conduction band as the correlated bandgap reduces. Our finding points to a distinct pathway towards an uncharted territory of NEC featuring bulk correlated metals with unique potential for applications in low-power nanoelectronics and novel metamaterials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Fermi Arcs vs. Fermi Pockets in Electron-doped Perovskite Iridates

We report on an angle resolved photoemission (ARPES) study of bulk electron-doped perovskite iridate, (Sr1-xLax)3Ir2O7. Fermi surface pockets are observed with a total electron count in keeping with that expected from La substitution. Depending on the energy and polarization of the incident photons, these pockets show up in the form of disconnected "Fermi arcs", reminiscent of those reported recently in surface electron-doped Sr2IrO4. Our observed spectral variation is consistent with the coexistence of an electronic supermodulation with structural distortion in the system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

A Minimal tight-binding model for ferromagnetic canted bilayer manganites

Half-metallicity in materials has been a subject of extensive research due to its potential for applications in spintronics. Ferromagnetic manganites have been seen as a good candidate, and aside from a small minority-spin pocket observed in La$_{2-2x}$Sr$_{1+2x}$Mn$_{2}$O$_{7}$ $(x=0.38)$, transport measurements show that ferromagnetic manganites essentially behave like half metals. Here we develop robust tight-binding models to describe the electronic band structure of the majority as well as minority spin states of ferromagnetic, spin-canted antiferromagnetic, and fully antiferromagnetic bilayer manganites. Both the bilayer coupling between the MnO$_2$ planes and the mixing of the $|x^2 - y^2>$ and $|3z^2 - r^2>$ Mn 3d orbitals play an important role in the subtle behavior of the bilayer splitting. Effects of $k_z$ dispersion are included.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Gutzwiller Charge Phase Diagram of Cuprates, including Electron-Phonon Coupling Effects

Besides significant electronic correlations, high-temperature superconductors also show a strong coupling of electrons to a number of lattice modes. Combined with the experimental detection of electronic inhomogeneities and ordering phenomena in many high-T_c compounds, these features raise the question as to what extent phonons are involved in the associated instabilities. Here we address this problem based on the Hubbard model including a coupling to phonons in order to capture several salient features of the phase diagram of hole-doped cuprates. Charge degrees of freedom, which are suppressed by the large Hubbard U near half-filling, are found to become active at a fairly low doping level. We find that possible charge order is mainly driven by Fermi surface nesting, with competition between a near-(pi,pi) order at low doping and antinodal nesting at higher doping, very similar to the momentum structure of magnetic fluctuations. The resulting nesting vectors are generally consistent with photoemission and tunneling observations, evidence for charge density wave (CDW) order in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-delta} including Kohn anomalies, and suggestions of competition between one- and two-q-vector nesting.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Intermediate Coupling Model of the Cuprates

We review the intermediate coupling model for treating electronic correlations in the cuprates. Spectral signatures of the intermediate coupling scenario are identified and used to adduce that the cuprates fall in the intermediate rather than the weak or the strong coupling limits. A robust, `beyond LDA' framework for obtaining wide-ranging properties of the cuprates via a GW-approximation based self-consistent self-energy correction for incorporating correlation effects is delineated. In this way, doping and temperature dependent spectra, from the undoped insulator to the overdoped metal, in the normal as well as the superconducting state, with features of both weak and strong coupling can be modeled in a material-specific manner with very few parameters. Efficacy of the model is shown by considering available spectroscopic data on electron and hole doped cuprates from angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES), scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS), neutron scattering, inelastic light scattering, optical and other experiments. Generalizations to treat systems with multiple correlated bands such as the heavy-fermions, the ruthenates, and the actinides are discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Electronic structure and excitations in oxygen deficient CeO$_{2-δ}$ from DFT calculations

The electronic structures of supercells of CeO$_{2-δ}$ have been calculated within the Density Functional Theory (DFT). The equilibrium properties such as lattice constants, bulk moduli and magnetic moments are well reproduced by the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). Electronic excitations are simulated by robust total energy calculations for constrained states with atomic core- or valence-holes. Pristine ceria CeO$_2$ is found to be a non-magnetic insulator with magnetism setting in as soon as oxygens are removed from the structure. In the ground state of defective ceria, the Ce-$f$ majority band resides near the Fermi level, but appears at about 2 eV below the Fermi level in photoemission spectroscopy experiments due to final state effects. We also tested our computational method by calculating threshold energies in Ce-M$_5$ and O-K x-ray absorption spectroscopy and comparing theoretical predictions with the corresponding measurements. Our result that $f$ electrons reside near the Fermi level in the ground state of oxygen deficient ceria is crucial for understanding catalytic properties of CeO$_2$ and related materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Minority-spin $t_{2g}$ states and the degree of spin polarization in ferromagnetic metallic La$_{2-2x}$Sr$_{1+2x}$Mn$_2$O$_7$ ($x=0.38$)

Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we investigate the electronic band structure and Fermi surface of ferromagnetic La$_{2-2x}$Sr$_{1+2x}$Mn$_2$O$_7$ ($x=0.38$). Besides the expected two hole pockets and one electron pocket of majority-spin $e_g$ electrons, we show an extra electron pocket around the $Γ$ point. A comparison with first-principles spin-polarized band-structure calculations shows that the extra electron pocket arises from $t_{2g}$ electrons of minority-spin character, indicating this compound is not a complete half-metallic ferromagnet, with similar expectations for lightly-doped cubic manganites. However, our data suggest that a complete half-metallic state is likely to be reached as long as the bandwidth is mildly reduced. Moreover, the band-resolved capability of ARPES enables us to investigate the band structure effects on spin polarization for different experimental conditions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Effects of excess or deficiency of oxygen content on the electronic structure of high-$T_C$ cuprates

Band structure calculations are presented for large supercells of Ba$_2$CuO$_4$ (BCO) with O-vacancies in planar or apic al positions, and of superoxygenated La$_2$CuO$_4$ (LCO) with oxygen interstitials in the La$_2$O$_2$ layers. It is foun d that apical oxygen vacancies in BCO act as electron dopants and makes the electronic structure similar to that of hole doped LCO. Excess oxygen interstitials forming wires in the La$_2$O$_2$ layers of LCO are shown to yield a much larger density-of-states at the Fermi energy than for the stoichiometric compound related with a segmentation of the Fermi surface. Anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) spin fluctuations are strengthened by O-vacancies in BCO as well as by oxygen interstitials in LCO, but are strongly suppressed in O-deficient LCO. Our results indicate the complexity of doping by O-vacancies, and by ordered defects that are a significant factor contr olling the electronic properties of cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗