Atomic-scale interpretation of the quantum oscillations in cuprate superconductors

K S Lee; J-J Kim; S H Joo; M S Park; J H Yoo; Genda Gu; Jinho Lee

doi:10.1088/1361-648X/acc379

Atomic-scale interpretation of the quantum oscillations in cuprate superconductors

J Phys Condens Matter. 2023 Mar 22;35(21). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/acc379.

Authors

K S Lee¹, J-J Kim¹, S H Joo¹, M S Park¹, J H Yoo¹, Genda Gu², Jinho Lee¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
² CMPMS Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States of America.

PMID: 36898156
DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/acc379

Abstract

Cuprate superconductors display unusual features in bothkspace and real space as the superconductivity is suppressed-a broken Fermi surface, charge density wave, and pseudogap. Contrarily, recent transport measurements on cuprates under high magnetic fields report quantum oscillations (QOs), which imply rather a usual Fermi liquid behavior. To settle the disagreement, we investigated Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δunder a magnetic field in an atomic scale. A particle-hole (p-h) asymmetrically dispersing density of states (DOSs) modulation was found at the vortices on a slightly underdoped sample, while on a highly underdoped sample, no trace of the vortex was found even at 13 T. However, a similar p-h asymmetric DOS modulation persisted in almost an entire field of view. From this observation, we infer an alternative explanation of the QO results by providing a unifying picture where the aforementioned seemingly conflicting evidence from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, spectroscopic imaging scanning tunneling microscopy, and magneto-transport measurements can be understood solely in terms of the DOS modulations.

Keywords: STM; cuprate; high magnetic field; high-Tc; magnetic vortices; quantum oscillation; superconductor.

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