Theory for slightly doped antiferromagnetic mott insulators

Insulator-metal transition and quasi-flat-band of Shastry-Sutherland lattice

Insulator-metal transition is investigated self-consistently on the frustrated Shastry-Sutherland lattice in the framework of Slave-Boson mean-field theory. Due to the presence of quasi-flat band structure characteristic, the system displays a spin-density-wave (SDW) insulating phase at the weak doping levels, which is robust against frustration, and it will be transited into an SDW metallic phase at high doping levels. As further increasing the doping, the temperature or the frustration on the diagonal linking bonds, the magnetic order m will be monotonically suppressed, resulting in the appearance of a paramagnetic metallic phase. Although the Fermi surface of the SDW metallic phase may be immersed by temperature, the number of mobile charges is robust against temperature at weak doping levels.

Disappearance of nodal gap across the insulator-superconductor transition in a copper-oxide superconductor

The parent compound of the copper-oxide high-temperature superconductors is a Mott insulator. Superconductivity is realized by doping an appropriate amount of charge carriers. How a Mott insulator transforms into a superconductor is crucial in understanding the unusual physical properties of high-temperature superconductors and the superconductivity mechanism. Here we report high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurement on heavily underdoped Bi₂Sr₂-xLaxCuO(₆+δ) system. The electronic structure of the lightly doped samples exhibit a number of characteristics: existence of an energy gap along the nodal direction, d-wave-like anisotropic energy gap along the underlying Fermi surface, and coexistence of a coherence peak and a broad hump in the photoemission spectra. Our results reveal a clear insulator-superconductor transition at a critical doping level of ~0.10 where the nodal energy gap approaches zero, the three-dimensional antiferromagnetic order disappears, and superconductivity starts to emerge. These observations clearly signal a close connection between the nodal gap, antiferromagnetism and superconductivity.

Ising t-J model close to half filling: a Monte Carlo study

Within the recently proposed doped-carrier representation of the projected lattice electron operators we derive a full Ising version of the t-J model. This model possesses the global discrete Z(2) symmetry as a maximal spin symmetry of the Hamiltonian at any values of the coupling constants, t and J. In contrast, in the spin anisotropic limit of the t-J model, usually referred to as the t-J(z) model, the global SU(2) invariance is fully restored at J(z) = 0, so that only the spin-spin interaction has in this model the true Ising form. We discuss a relationship between these two models and the standard isotropic t-J model. We show that the low-energy quasiparticles in all three models share qualitatively similar properties at low doping and small values of J/t. The main advantage of the proposed Ising t-J model over the t-J(z) one is that the former allows for the unbiased Monte Carlo calculations on large clusters of up to 10(3) sites. Within this model we discuss in detail the destruction of the antiferromagnetic (AF) order by doping as well as the interplay between the AF order and hole mobility. We also discuss the effect of the exchange interaction and that of the next-nearest-neighbour hoppings on the destruction of the AF order at finite doping. We show that the short-range AF order is observed in a wide range of temperatures and dopings, much beyond the boundaries of the AF phase. We explicitly demonstrate that the local no-double-occupancy constraint plays the dominant role in destroying the magnetic order at finite doping. Finally, a role of inhomogeneities is discussed.

Competition between antiferromagnetic and superconducting states, electron-hole doping asymmetry, and fermi-surface topology in high temperature superconductors

We investigate the asymmetry between electron and hole doping in a 2D Mott insulator and the resulting competition between antiferromagnetism (AFM) and d-wave superconductivity (SC), using variational Monte Carlo calculations for projected wave functions. We find that key features of the T=0 phase diagram, such as critical doping for SC-AFM coexistence and the maximum value of the SC order parameter, are determined by a single parameter eta which characterizes the topology of the "Fermi surface" at half filling defined by the bare tight-binding parameters. Our results give insight into why AFM wins for electron doping, while SC is dominant on the hole-doped side. We also suggest using band structure engineering to control the eta parameter for enhancing SC.

Two-mode variational Monte Carlo study of quasiparticle excitations in cuprate superconductors

Recent measurements of quasiparticles in hole-doped cuprates revealed highly unusual features: (i) the doping-independent Fermi velocity, (ii) two energy scales in the quasiparticle spectral function, and (iii) a suppression of the low-energy spectral weight near the zone center. We explain these important facts by a novel two-mode variational Monte Carlo (VMC) study of the t-J model, which resolves a long-standing issue of the sum rule for quasiparticle spectral weights in VMC studies. The electron-doped case is also discussed.

Uniform mixing of antiferromagnetism and high-temperature superconductivity in electron-doped layers of four-layered Ba(2)Ca(3)Cu(4)O(8)F(2): a new phenomenon in an electron underdoped regime

We report (63,65)Cu- and (19)F-NMR studies on a four-layered high-temperature superconductor Ba(2)Ca(3)Cu(4)O(8)F(2)((0234F(2.0)) with apical fluorine (F(-1)), an undoped 55 K superconductor with a nominal Cu(2+) valence on average. We reveal that this compound exhibits the antiferromagnetism (AFM) with a Néel temperature T(N)=100 K despite being a T(c)=55 K superconductor. Through a comparison with a related trilayered cuprate Ba(2)Ca(3)Cu(4)O(8)F(2)(0233F(2.0)), it is demonstrated that electrons are transferred from the inner plane (IP) to the outer plane (OP) in 0234F(2.0) and 0223F(2.0), confirming the self-doped high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC) having electron and hole doping in a single compound. Remarkably, uniform mixing of AFM and HTSC takes place in both the electron-doped OPs and the hole-doped IPs in 0234F(2.0).

Electron-phonon coupling and a polaron in the t-J model: from the weak to the strong coupling regime

We present numeric results for ground state and angle resolved photoemission spectra (ARPES) for a single hole in the t-J model coupled to optical phonons. The systematic-error-free diagrammatic Monte Carlo method is employed where the Feynman graphs for the Matsubara Green function in imaginary time are summed up completely with respect to phonon variables, while magnetic variables are subjected to the noncrossing approximation. We obtain that at electron-phonon coupling constants relevant for high T(c) cuprates the polaron undergoes a self-trapping crossover to the strong-coupling limit and theoretical ARPES demonstrate features observed in experiment: A broad peak in the bottom of the spectra has momentum dependence which coincides with that of a hole in the pure t-J model.

Enhancement of pairing correlation by t' in the two-dimensional extended t-J model

We investigate the effects of the next-nearest-neighbor (t') and the third-nearest-neighbor (t") hopping terms on superconductivity correlation in the 2D hole-doped extended t-J model based on the variational Monte Carlo, mean-field calculation and exact diagonalization method. Despite the diversity of the methods employed, the results all point to a consistent conclusion: While the d-wave superconductivity correlation is slightly suppressed by t' and t" in underdoped regions, it is greatly enhanced in the optimal and overdoped regions. The optimal Tc is a result of the balance of these two opposite trends.

Single-particle spectrum in the electron-doped cuprates

We study the evolution of the single-particle spectrum with electron doping in a scheme which adds multiple exchange of transverse spin excitations to the mean-field antiferromagnetic insulator. Away from half-filling small Fermi surface pockets appear first around the X points, and simultaneously new spectral weight grows in the insulating gap. With further doping the in-gap states develop the character of a renormalized quasiparticle band near the chemical potential. The essential features in momentum-energy space agree well with recent studies using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on electron-doped cuprates. We interpret the origins and the nature of the in-gap states using a simple variational wave function.

Low-energy spectra in t-J-type models at low doping levels

Based on a variational approach, we propose that there are two kinds of low-energy states in the t-J-type models at low doping. In a quasiparticle state an unpaired spin bound to a hole with a well-defined momentum can be excited with spin waves. The resulting state shows a suppression of antiferromagnetic order around the hole with the profile of a spin bag. These spin-bag states with spin and charge or hole separated form a continuum of low-energy excitations. Very different properties predicted by these two kinds of states explain a number of anomalous results observed in the exact diagonalization studies on small clusters up to 32 sites.