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

M Hepting¹, L Chaix^{1

2}, E W Huang^{1

3}, R Fumagalli⁴, Y Y Peng^{4

5}, B Moritz¹, K Kummer⁶, N B Brookes⁶, W C Lee⁷, M Hashimoto⁸, T Sarkar⁹, J-F He^{1

10}, C R Rotundu¹, Y S Lee¹, R L Greene⁹, L Braicovich^{4

6}, G Ghiringhelli^{4

11}, Z X Shen¹², T P Devereaux¹³, W S Lee¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
² Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Institut Néel, Grenoble, France.
³ Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
⁵ Department of Physics and Seitz Materials Research Lab, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA.
⁶ European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France.
⁷ Department of Physics, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, USA.
⁸ Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics, Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
¹¹ CNR-SPIN, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
¹² Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, USA. zxshen@stanford.edu.
¹³ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, USA. tpd@stanford.edu.
¹⁴ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, USA. leews@stanford.edu.

PMID: 30429543
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0648-3

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

M Hepting et al. Nature. 2018 Nov.

. 2018 Nov;563(7731):374-378.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0648-3. Epub 2018 Oct 31.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
² Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Institut Néel, Grenoble, France.
³ Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
⁵ Department of Physics and Seitz Materials Research Lab, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA.
⁶ European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France.
⁷ Department of Physics, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, USA.
⁸ Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics, Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
¹¹ CNR-SPIN, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
¹² Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, USA. zxshen@stanford.edu.
¹³ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, USA. tpd@stanford.edu.
¹⁴ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA, USA. leews@stanford.edu.

PMID: 30429543
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0648-3

Abstract

High-temperature copper oxide superconductors consist of stacked CuO₂ 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 CuO₂ 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.

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References

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1. Fujita, M. et al. Progress in neutron scattering studies of spin excitations in high-T _c cuprates. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 81, 011007 (2012). - DOI
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1. Singley, E. J., Basov, D. N., Kurahashi, K., Uefuji, T. & Yamada, K. Electron dynamics in Nd_1.85Ce_0.15CuO_4+δ: evidence for the pseudogap state and unconventional c-axis response. Phys. Rev. B 64, 224503 (2001). - DOI
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Three-dimensional collective charge excitations in electron-doped copper oxide superconductors

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

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