First direct observation of the Van Hove singularity in the tunnelling spectra of cuprates

The discovery of three-dimensional Van Hove singularity

Arising from the extreme/saddle point in electronic bands, Van Hove singularity (VHS) manifests divergent density of states (DOS) and induces various new states of matter such as unconventional superconductivity. VHS is believed to exist in one and two dimensions, but rarely found in three dimension (3D). Here, we report the discovery of 3D VHS in a topological magnet EuCd2As2 by magneto-infrared spectroscopy. External magnetic fields effectively control the exchange interaction in EuCd2As2, and shift 3D Weyl bands continuously, leading to the modification of Fermi velocity and energy dispersion. Above the critical field, the 3D VHS forms and is evidenced by the abrupt emergence of inter-band transitions, which can be quantitatively described by the minimal model of Weyl semimetals. Three additional optical transitions are further predicted theoretically and verified in magneto-near-infrared spectra. Our results pave the way to exploring VHS in 3D systems and uncovering the coordination between electronic correlation and the topological phase.

Transport properties and doping evolution of the Fermi surface in cuprates

Measured transport properties of three representative cuprates are reproduced within the paradigm of two electron subsystems, itinerant and localized. The localized subsystem evolves continuously from the Cu 3d[Formula: see text] hole at half-filling and corresponds to the (pseudo)gapped parts of the Fermi surface. The itinerant subsystem is observed as a pure Fermi liquid (FL) with material-independent universal mobility across the doping/temperature phase diagram. The localized subsystem affects the itinerant one in our transport calculations solely by truncating the textbook FL integrals to the observed (doping- and temperature-dependent) Fermi arcs. With this extremely simple picture, we obtain the measured evolution of the resistivity and Hall coefficients in all three cases considered, including LSCO which undergoes a Lifshitz transition in the relevant doping range, a complication which turns out to be superficial. Our results imply that prior to evoking polaronic, quantum critical point, quantum dissipation, or even more exotic scenarios for the evolution of transport properties in cuprates, Fermi-surface properties must be addressed in realistic detail.

Puddle formation and persistent gaps across the non-mean-field breakdown of superconductivity in overdoped (Pb,Bi)2Sr2CuO6+δ

The cuprate high-temperature superconductors exhibit many unexplained electronic phases, but the superconductivity at high doping is often believed to be governed by conventional mean-field Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory¹. However, it was shown that the superfluid density vanishes when the transition temperature goes to zero^2,3, in contradiction to expectations from Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory. Our scanning tunnelling spectroscopy measurements in the overdoped regime of the (Pb,Bi)₂Sr₂CuO_6+δ high-temperature superconductor show that this is due to the emergence of nanoscale superconducting puddles in a metallic matrix^4,5. Our measurements further reveal that this puddling is driven by gap filling instead of gap closing. The important implication is that it is not a diminishing pairing interaction that causes the breakdown of superconductivity. Unexpectedly, the measured gap-to-filling correlation also reveals that pair breaking by disorder does not play a dominant role and that the mechanism of superconductivity in overdoped cuprate superconductors is qualitatively different from conventional mean-field theory.

Superconductivity in a Hole-Doped Mott-Insulating Triangular Adatom Layer on a Silicon Surface

Adsorption of one-third monolayer of Sn on an atomically clean Si(111) substrate produces a two-dimensional triangular adatom lattice with one unpaired electron per site. This dilute adatom reconstruction is an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator; however, the system can be modulation doped and metallized using heavily doped p-type Si(111) substrates. Here, we show that the hole-doped dilute adatom layer on a degenerately doped p-type Si(111) wafer is superconducting with a critical temperature of 4.7±0.3  K. While a phonon-mediated coupling scenario would be consistent with the observed T_{c}, Mott correlations in the Sn-derived dangling-bond surface state could suppress the s-wave pairing channel. The latter suggests that the superconductivity in this triangular adatom lattice may be unconventional.

Temperature-Induced Lifshitz Transition and Possible Excitonic Instability in ZrSiSe

The nodal-line semimetals have attracted immense interest due to the unique electronic structures such as the linear dispersion and the vanishing density of states as the Fermi energy approaching the nodes. Here, we report temperature-dependent transport and scanning tunneling microscopy (spectroscopy) [STM(S)] measurements on nodal-line semimetal ZrSiSe. Our experimental results and theoretical analyses consistently demonstrate that the temperature induces Lifshitz transitions at 80 and 106 K in ZrSiSe, which results in the transport anomalies at the same temperatures. More strikingly, we observe a V-shaped dip structure around Fermi energy from the STS spectrum at low temperature, which can be attributed to co-effect of the spin-orbit coupling and excitonic instability. Our observations indicate the correlation interaction may play an important role in ZrSiSe, which owns the quasi-two-dimensional electronic structures.

Development of Ferromagnetic Fluctuations in Heavily Overdoped (Bi,Pb)_{2}Sr_{2}CuO_{6+δ} Copper Oxides

We demonstrate the presence of ferromagnetic (FM) fluctuations in the superconducting and nonsuperconducting heavily overdoped regimes of high-temperature superconducting copper oxides, using (Bi,Pb)_{2}Sr_{2}CuO_{6+δ} (Bi-2201) single crystals. Magnetization curves exhibit a tendency to be saturated in high magnetic fields at low temperatures in the heavily overdoped crystals, which is probably a precursor phenomenon of a FM transition at a lower temperature. Muon spin relaxation detects the enhancement of spin fluctuations at high temperatures below 200 K. Correspondingly, the ab-plane resistivity follows a 4/3 power law in a wide temperature range, which is characteristic of metals with two-dimensional FM fluctuations due to itinerant electrons. As the Wilson ratio evidences the enhancement of spin fluctuations with hole doping in the heavily overdoped regime, it is concluded that two-dimensional FM fluctuations reside in the heavily overdoped Bi-2201 cuprates, which is probably related to the decrease in the superconducting transition temperature in the heavily overdoped cuprates.

Evolution of a Novel Ribbon Phase in Optimally Doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ at High Pressure and Its Implication to High- TC Superconductivity

One challenge in studying high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) stems from a lack of direct experimental evidence linking lattice inhomogeneity and superconductivity. Here, we apply synchrotron hard X-ray nanoimaging and small-angle scattering to reveal a novel micron-scaled ribbon phase in optimally doped Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δ (Bi-2212, with δ = 0.1). The morphology of the ribbon-like phase evolves simultaneously with the dome-shaped T_C behavior under pressure. X-ray absorption studies show that the increasing of T_C is associated with oxygen-hole redistribution in the CuO₂ plan, while T_C starts to decrease with pressure when oxygen holes become immobile. Additional X-ray irradiation experiments reveal that nanoscaled short-range ordering of oxygen vacancies could further lower T_C, which indicates that the optimal T_C is affected not only by an optimal morphology of the ribbon phase, but also an optimal distribution of oxygen vacancies. Our studies thereby provide for the first time compelling experimental evidence correlating the T_C with micron to nanoscale inhomogeneity.

Correlation-Driven Lifshitz Transition at the Emergence of the Pseudogap Phase in the Two-Dimensional Hubbard Model

We study the relationship between the pseudogap and Fermi-surface topology in the two-dimensional Hubbard model by means of the cellular dynamical mean-field theory. We find two possible mean-field metallic solutions on a broad range of interactions, doping, and frustration: a conventional renormalized metal and an unconventional pseudogap metal. At half filling, the conventional metal is more stable and displays an interaction-driven Mott metal-insulator transition. However, for large interactions and small doping, a region that is relevant for cuprates, the pseudogap phase becomes the ground state. By increasing doping, we show that a first-order transition from the pseudogap to the conventional metal is tied to a change of the Fermi surface from hole- to electronlike, unveiling a correlation-driven mechanism for a Lifshitz transition. This explains the puzzling link between the pseudogap phase and Fermi surface topology that has been pointed out in recent experiments.

Realization of a Hole-Doped Mott Insulator on a Triangular Silicon Lattice

The physics of doped Mott insulators is at the heart of some of the most exotic physical phenomena in materials research including insulator-metal transitions, colossal magnetoresistance, and high-temperature superconductivity in layered perovskite compounds. Advances in this field would greatly benefit from the availability of new material systems with a similar richness of physical phenomena but with fewer chemical and structural complications in comparison to oxides. Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we show that such a system can be realized on a silicon platform. The adsorption of one-third monolayer of Sn atoms on a Si(111) surface produces a triangular surface lattice with half filled dangling bond orbitals. Modulation hole doping of these dangling bonds unveils clear hallmarks of Mott physics, such as spectral weight transfer and the formation of quasiparticle states at the Fermi level, well-defined Fermi contour segments, and a sharp singularity in the density of states. These observations are remarkably similar to those made in complex oxide materials, including high-temperature superconductors, but highly extraordinary within the realm of conventional sp-bonded semiconductor materials. It suggests that exotic quantum matter phases can be realized and engineered on silicon-based materials platforms.

The study of electronic nematicity in an overdoped (Bi, Pb)2Sr2CuO6+δ superconductor using scanning tunneling spectroscopy

The pseudogap (PG) state and its related intra-unit-cell symmetry breaking remain the focus in the research of cuprate superconductors. Although the nematicity has been studied in Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δ, especially underdoped samples, its behavior in other cuprates and different doping regions is still unclear. Here we apply a scanning tunneling microscope to explore an overdoped (Bi, Pb)₂Sr₂CuO_6+δ with a large Fermi surface (FS). The establishment of a nematic order and its real-space distribution is visualized as the energy scale approaches the PG.

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 ~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 transition between Mott and Slater physics, where a spin-frustrated state emerges at the crossover.

Mapping the Electronic Structure of Each Ingredient Oxide Layer of High-T\{c} Cuprate Superconductor Bi{2}Sr{2}CaCu{2}O{8+δ}

Understanding the mechanism of high transition temperature (T{c}) superconductivity in cuprates has been hindered by the apparent complexity of their multilayered crystal structure. Using a cryogenic scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we report on layer-by-layer probing of the electronic structures of all ingredient planes (BiO, SrO, CuO{2}) of Bi{2}Sr{2}CaCu_2}O{8+δ} superconductor prepared by argon-ion bombardment and annealing technique. We show that the well-known pseudogap (PG) feature observed by STM is inherently a property of the BiO planes and thus irrelevant directly to Cooper pairing. The SrO planes exhibit an unexpected van Hove singularity near the Fermi level, while the CuO{2} planes are exclusively characterized by a smaller gap inside the PG. The small gap becomes invisible near T{c}, which we identify as the superconducting gap. The above results constitute severe constraints on any microscopic model for high T{c} superconductivity in cuprates.

Fermi-surface-free superconductivity in underdoped (Bi,Pb)(Sr,La)2CuO(6+δ) (Bi2201)

Fermi-surface-free superconductivity arises when the superconducting order pulls down spectral weight from a band that is completely above the Fermi energy in the normal state. We show that this can arise in hole-doped cuprates when a competing order causes a reconstruction of the Fermi surface. The change in Fermi surface topology is accompanied by a characteristic rise in the spectral weight. Our results support the presence of a trisected superconducting dome, and suggest that superconductivity is responsible for stabilizing the (π,π) magnetic order at higher doping.

Collapse of the normal-state pseudogap at a Lifshitz transition in the Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+δ) cuprate superconductor

We report a fine tuned doping study of strongly overdoped Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8+δ} single crystals using electronic Raman scattering. Combined with theoretical calculations, we show that the doping, at which the normal-state pseudogap closes, coincides with a Lifshitz quantum phase transition where the active holelike Fermi surface becomes electronlike. This conclusion suggests that the microscopic cause of the pseudogap is sensitive to the Fermi surface topology. Furthermore, we find that the superconducting transition temperature is unaffected by this transition, demonstrating that their origins are different on the overdoped side.

Weak antilocalization effect and noncentrosymmetric superconductivity in a topologically nontrivial semimetal LuPdBi

A large number of half-Heusler compounds have been recently proposed as three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TIs) with tunable physical properties. However, no transport measurements associated with the topological surface states have been observed in these half-Heusler candidates due to the dominating contribution from bulk electrical conductance. Here we show that, by reducing the mobility of bulk carriers, a two-dimensional (2D) weak antilocalization (WAL) effect, one of the hallmarks of topological surface states, was experimentally revealed from the tilted magnetic field dependence of magnetoconductance in a topologically nontrivial semimetal LuPdBi. Besides the observation of a 2D WAL effect, a superconducting transition was revealed at T_c ~ 1.7 K in the same bulk LuPdBi. Quantitative analysis within the framework of a generalized BCS theory leads to the conclusion that the noncentrosymmetric superconductivity of LuPdBi is fully gapped with a possibly unconventional pairing character. The co-existence of superconductivity and the transport signature of topological surface states in the same bulk alloy suggests that LuPdBi represents a very promising candidate as a topological superconductor.