Three-dimensional collective charge excitations in electron-doped copper oxide superconductors

High-temperature copper oxide superconductors consist of stacked CuO 2 planes, with electronic band structures and magnetic excitations that are primarily two-dimensional 1 , 2 , but with superconducting coherence that is three-dimensional. This dichotomy highlights the importance of out-of-plane ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) Vol. 563; no. 7731; pp. 374 - 378
Main Authors: Hepting, M., Chaix, L., Huang, E. W., Fumagalli, R., Peng, Y. Y., Moritz, B., Kummer, K., Brookes, N. B., Lee, W. C., Hashimoto, M., Sarkar, T., He, J.-F., Rotundu, C. R., Lee, Y. S., Greene, R. L., Braicovich, L., Ghiringhelli, G., Shen, Z. X., Devereaux, T. P., Lee, W. S.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.11.2018
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
639/301/119/995
639/301/119/999
639/766/119/1003
639/766/930/12
Acoustic properties
Acoustics
Aircraft
Brillouin zones
Condensed Matter
CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Copper
Copper compounds
Copper oxides
Crystallography
Dispersion
Electric properties
Electrons
Energy
High temperature
High temperature superconductors
Humanities and Social Sciences
Inelastic scattering
Lattice parameters
Lattice vibration
Letter
multidisciplinary
Optics
Periodicity
Physics
Planes
Properties
Resveratrol
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spectrum analysis
Superconductors
X-ray scattering
Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS)
Charge Dynamics
CuO2 Planes
Acoustic Plasmons
RIXS Spectra
ISSN:0028-0836, 1476-4687, 1476-4687
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:High-temperature copper oxide superconductors consist of stacked CuO 2 planes, with electronic band structures and magnetic excitations that are primarily two-dimensional 1 , 2 , but with superconducting coherence that is three-dimensional. This dichotomy highlights the importance of out-of-plane charge dynamics, which has been found to be incoherent in the normal state 3 , 4 within the limited range of momenta accessible by optics. Here we use resonant inelastic X-ray scattering to explore the charge dynamics across all three dimensions of the Brillouin zone. Polarization analysis of recently discovered collective excitations (modes) in electron-doped copper oxides 5 – 7 reveals their charge origin, that is, without mixing with magnetic components 5 – 7 . The excitations disperse along both the in-plane and out-of-plane directions, revealing its three-dimensional nature. The periodicity of the out-of-plane dispersion corresponds to the distance between neighbouring CuO 2 planes rather than to the crystallographic c -axis lattice constant, suggesting that the interplane Coulomb interaction is responsible for the coherent out-of-plane charge dynamics. The observed properties are hallmarks of the long-sought ‘acoustic plasmon’, which is a branch of distinct charge collective modes predicted for layered systems 8 – 12 and argued to play a substantial part in mediating high-temperature superconductivity 10 – 12 . Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering on electron-doped copper oxide superconductors reveals a three-dimensional charge collective mode, which has properties suggestive of the long-sought acoustic plasmon.
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AC02-76SF00515; AC02-05CH11231
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
National Science Foundation (NSF)
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/s41586-018-0648-3