Relevance of 3d multiplet structure in nickelate and cuprate superconductors

The recent discovery of superconductivity in doped rare-earth infinite-layer nickelates RNiO_(2),R=Nd,Pr as a new family of unconventional superconductors has inspired extensive research on their intriguing properties.One of the major motivation to explore the nickelate superconductors originated from their similarities with and differences from the cuprate superconductors,which have been extensively studied over the last decades but are still lack of the thorough understanding.In this short review,we summarized our recent investigation of the relevance of Ni/Cu-3d multiplet structure on the hole doped spin states in cuprate and recently discovered nickelate superconductors via an impurity model incorporating all the 3d orbitals.Further plausible explorations to be conducted are outlined as well.Our presented work provides an insightful framework for the investigation of the strongly correlated electronic systems in terms of the multiplet structure of transition metal compounds.

Quasiparticle scattering interference in electron-doped cuprate superconductors

By considering the nonmonotonic d-wave gap effect, the energy and momentum dependence of quasiparticle scattering interference is studied in the presence of a single impurity. It is shown that the pattern of the quasiparticle scattering peaks in the full Brillouin zone of electron-doped cuprate superconductors is very different from that in the hole-doped case described by the Octet model. This difference is the result of the nonmonotonic d-wave superconducting gap in the electron-doped case. As the energy increases, the position of the local peaks in the Brillouin zone moves rapidly. In particular, the characteristic peaks of the electron-doped cuprate superconductors appear between the antinodal and nodal directions, unlike in the hole-doped case.

Hybrid crystals of cuprates and iron-based superconductors

We propose two possible new compounds, Ba2CuO2Fe2As2and K2CuO2Fe2Se2, which hybridize the building blocks of two high temperature superconductors, cuprates and iron-based superconductors. These compounds consist of square CuO2 layers and antifluorite-type Fe2X2（X = As, Se） layers separated by Ba/K. The calculations of binding energies and phonon spectra indicate that they are dynamically stable, which ensures that they may be experimentally synthesized. The Fermi surfaces and electronic structures of the two compounds inherit the characteristics of both cuprates and iron-based superconductors. These compounds can be superconductors with intriguing physical properties to help to determine the pairing mechanisms of high Tc superconductivity.

Negligible normal fluid in superconducting state of heavily overdoped Bi_(2)Sr_(2)CaCu_(2)O_(8+δ) detected by ultra-low temperature angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

In high temperature cuprate superconductors,it was found that the superfluid density decreases with the increase of hole doping.One natural question is whether there exists normal fluid in the superconducting state in the overdoped region.In this paper,we have carried out high-resolution ultra-low temperature laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements on a heavily overdoped Bi2212 sample with a T_(c) of 48 K.We find that this heavily overdoped Bi2212 remains in the strong coupling regime with 2Δ_(0)/(k_(B)T_(c))=5.8.The single-particle scattering rate is very small along the nodal direction(~5 meV) and increases as the momentum moves from the nodal to the antinodal regions.A hard superconducting gap opening is observed near the antinodal region with the spectral weight at the Fermi level fully suppressed to zero.The normal fluid is found to be negligibly small in the superconducting state of this heavily overdoped Bi2212.These results provide key information to understand the high T_(c) mechanism in the cuprate superconductors.

Exploring charge and spin fluctuations in infinite-layer cuprate SrCuO_(2)from a phonon perspective

The infinite-layer cuprate ACu O_(2)(A=Ca,Sr,Ba)possesses the simplest crystal structure among numerous cuprate superconductors and can serve as a prototypical system to explore the unconventional superconductivity.Based on the first-principles electronic structure calculations,we have studied the electronic and magnetic properties of the infinite-layer cuprate SrCuO_(2)from a phonon perspective.We find that interesting fluctuations of charges,electrical dipoles,and local magnetic moments can be induced by the atomic displacements of phonon modes in SrCuO_(2)upon the hole doping.Among all optical phonon modes of SrCuO_(2)in the antiferromagnetic Néel state,only the A_(1g)mode that involves the full-breathing O vibrations along the Cu-O bonds can cause significant fluctuations of local magnetic moments on O atoms and dramatic charge redistributions between Cu and O atoms.Notably,due to the atomic displacements of the A_(1g)mode,both the charge fluctuations on Cu and the electrical dipoles on O show a dome-like evolution with increasing hole doping,quite similar to the experimentally observed behavior of the superconducting T_(c);in comparison,the fluctuations of local magnetic moments on O display a monotonic enhancement along with the hole doping.Further analyses indicate that around the optimal doping,there exists a large softening in the frequency of the A_(1g)phonon mode and a van Hove singularity in the electronic structure close to the Fermi level,suggesting potential electron-phonon coupling.Our work reveals the important role of the full-breathing O phonon mode playing in the infinite-layer SrCuO_(2),which may provide new insights in understanding the cuprate superconductivity.

Visualizing the charge order and topological defects in an overdoped （Bi,Pb）2Sr2CuO6+x superconductor

Electronic charge order is a symmetry breaking state in high-Tc cuprate superconductors. In scanning tunneling microscopy, the detected charge-order-induced modulation is an electronic response of the charge order. For an overdoped(Bi,Pb)2Sr2CuO6+x sample, we apply scanning tunneling microscopy to explore local properties of the charge order. The ordering wavevector is nondispersive with energy, which can be confirmed and determined. By extracting its order-parameter field, we identify dislocations in the stripe structure of the electronic modulation, which correspond to topological defects with an integer winding number of ±1. Through differential conductance maps over a series of reduced energies, the development of different response of the charge order is observed and a spatial evolution of topological defects is detected. The intensity of charge-order-induced modulation increases with energy and reaches its maximum when approaching the pseudogap energy. In this evolution, the topological defects decrease in density and migrate in space. Furthermore, we observe appearance and disappearance of closely spaced pairs of defects as energy changes. Our experimental results could inspire further studies of the charge order in both high-Tccuprate superconductors and other charge density wave materials.

A possible new family of unconventional high temperature superconductors

We suggest a new family of Co[Ni-based materials that may host unconventional high temperature superconductivity （high-To）. These materials carry layered square lattices with each layer being formed by vertex-shared transition metal tetrahedra cation-anion complexes. The electronic physics in these materials is determined by the two dimensional layer and is fully attributed to the three near degenerated t2g d-orbitals close to a d7 filling configuration in the d-shell of CoJNi atoms. The electronic structure meets the necessary criteria for unconventional high Tc materials proposed recently by us to unify the two known high-Tc families, cuprates and iron-based superconductors. We predict that they host superconducting states with a d-wave pairing symmetry with Tc potentially higher than those of iron-based superconductors. These materials, if realized, can be a fertile new ground to study strongly correlated electronic Physics and provide decisive evidence for superconducting pairing mechanism.

Pressure-induced isostructural phase transition in Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_(8+δ)

The high-pressure structures of an underdoped cuprate superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2Os＋ have been studied by synchrotron X-ray diffraction at pressures up to 36.5 GPa. We find that this superconductor retains its orthogonal structure with the space group Amaa in the pressure range studied. Upon compression, both the a and b axes first shrink monotonicall up to 17.4 GPa from their ambient pressure values and keep these behaviors with positive compressibilities up to 36.5 GPa after experiencing expansion with negative compressibilities in the pressure regime between 17.4 and 23.7 GPa. However, the c axis decreases continuously with increasing pressure with a slow change at about 23.7 GPa. The results indicate an isostructural phase transition starting at 17.4 GPa and a structural collapse at around 23.7 GPa.