This thesis is devoted to a theoretical study of high-temperature superconductivity from the viewpoint of a doped Mott insulator. To this end, the square-lattice t-J model is analyzed by variational and mean-field approaches. The thesis focuses on the construction of excitations and on spectral properties in the framework of Anderson's concept of resonating-valence-bond wavefunctions. The quantum dimer model as a toy model for the resonating-valence-bond phase of Mott insulators is also explored. In the first part of the thesis, the single-particle Green's functions in the superconducting phase are analyzed using Gutzwiller-projected variational wavefunctions for the t-J model. It is found that the overall spectral weight is reduced by a momentum-dependent renormalization, and that the projection produces a particle-hole asymmetry in the renormalization of the spectral weights. The second part analyzes the Green's functions in the pseudogap phase of the cuprates within an SU(2) mean-field approach where the order parameter fluctuates between the d-wave superconductor and the non-superconducting staggered-flux state. The model predicts a photoemission spectrum with an asymmetric gap structure interpolating between the superconducting gap centered at the Fermi energy and the asymmetric staggered-flux gap. This gap asymmetry changes sign at the "hot-spots" where the Fermi surface crosses the diagonal (0,π)-(π,0). In the last part of the thesis, single hole and vortex excitations in the liquid phase of the triangular-lattice Rokhsar-Kivelson quantum dimer model are considered. It is found that the motion of a hole bound to a topological excitation is strongly constrained due to interference effects.
This thesis is devoted to a theoretical study of high-temperature superconductivity from the viewpoint of a doped Mott insulator. To this end, the square-lattice t-J model is analyzed by variational and mean-field approaches. The thesis focuses on the construction of excitations and on spectral properties in the framework of Anderson's concept of resonating-valence-bond wavefunctions. The quantum dimer model as a toy model for the resonating-valence-bond phase of Mott insulators is also explored. In the first part of the thesis, the single-particle Green's functions in the superconducting phase are analyzed using Gutzwiller-projected variational wavefunctions for the t-J model. It is found that the overall spectral weight is reduced by a momentum-dependent renormalization, and that the projection produces a particle-hole asymmetry in the renormalization of the spectral weights. The second part analyzes the Green's functions in the pseudogap phase of the cuprates within an SU(2) mean-field approach where the order parameter fluctuates between the d-wave superconductor and the non-superconducting staggered-flux state. The model predicts a photoemission spectrum with an asymmetric gap structure interpolating between the superconducting gap centered at the Fermi energy and the asymmetric staggered-flux gap. This gap asymmetry changes sign at the "hot-spots" where the Fermi surface crosses the diagonal (0,π)-(π,0). In the last part of the thesis, single hole and vortex excitations in the liquid phase of the triangular-lattice Rokhsar-Kivelson quantum dimer model are considered. It is found that the motion of a hole bound to a topological excitation is strongly constrained due to interference effects.
In a recent review by Anderson and co-workers, it was pointed out that an early resonating valence bond (RVB) theory is able to explain a number of unusual properties of high-temperature superconducting (SC) Cu oxides. Here we extend previous calculations to study more systematically the low-energy physical properties of the plain vanilla d-wave RVB state, and to compare the results with the available experiments. We use a renormalized mean-field theory combined with variational Monte Carlo and power Lanczos methods to study the RVB state of an extended $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model in a square lattice with parameters suitable for the hole-doped Cu oxides. The physical observable quantities we study include the specific heat, the linear residual thermal conductivity, the in-plane magnetic penetration depth, the quasiparticle energy at the antinode $(\ensuremath{\pi},0)$, the superconducting energy gap, the quasiparticle spectra, and the Drude weights. The traits of nodes (including kF, the Fermi velocity vF, and the velocity along Fermi surface v2), and the SC order parameter are studied. Comparisons of the theory and the experiments in cuprates show an overall qualitative agreement, especially on their doping dependences.
We study electronic structure of hole- and electron-doped Mott insulators in the two-dimensional Hubbard model to reach a unified picture for the normal state of cuprate high-Tc superconductors. By using a cluster extension of the dynamical mean-field theory, we demonstrate that structure of coexisting zeros and poles of the single-particle Green's function holds the key to understand Mott physics in the underdoped region. We show evidence for the emergence of non-Fermi-liquid phase caused by the topological quantum phase transition of Fermi surface by analyzing low-energy charge dynamics. The spectra calculated in a wide range of energy and momentum reproduce various anomalous properties observed in experiments for the high-Tc cuprates. Our results reveal that the pseudogap in hole-doped cuprates has a d-wavelike structure only below the Fermi level while it retains non-d-wave structure with a fully opened gap above the Fermi energy even in the nodal direction due to a zero surface extending over the entire Brillouin zone. In addition to the non-d-wave pseudogap, the present comprehensive identifications of the spectral asymmetry as to the Fermi energy, the Fermi arc, and the back-bending behavior of the dispersion, waterfall, and low-energy kink, in agreement with the experimental anomalies of the cuprates, do not support that these originate from (the precursors of) symmetry breakings such as the preformed pairing and the d-density-wave fluctuations, but support that they are direct consequences of the proximity to the Mott insulator. Several possible experiments are further proposed to prove or disprove our zero mechanism.
Despite the intense theoretical and experimental effort, an understanding of the superconducting pairing mechanism of the high-temperature superconductors leading to an unprecedented high transition temperature Tc is still lacking. An additional puzzle is the unknown connection between the superconducting gap and the so-called pseudogap which is a central property of the most unusual normal state. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements have revealed a gaplike behavior on parts of the Fermi surface, leaving a nongapped segment known as Fermi arc around the diagonal of the Brillouin zone. Two main interpretations of the origin of the pseudogap have been proposed: either the pseudogap is a precursor to superconductivity, or it arises from another order competing with superconductivity. Starting from the t-J model, in this paper we present a microscopic approach to investigate physical properties of the pseudogap phase as well as the superconducting phase in the framework of a renormalization scheme called projector-based renormalization method. This approach is based on a stepwise elimination of high-energy transitions using unitary transformations. We arrive at renormalized ``free'' Hamiltonians for correlated electrons for both phases. Our microscopic approach allows us to explain the experimental findings in the underdoped as well as in the optimal hole doping regime. The ARPES spectral function along the Fermi surface turns out to be in good agreement with experiment: For the pseudogap phase we find well-defined excitation peaks around $\ensuremath{\omega}=0$ near the nodal direction, which become strongly suppressed around the antinodal point. The origin of the pseudogap can be traced back to a suppression of spectral weight from incoherent excitations in a small $\ensuremath{\omega}$ range around the Fermi energy. In the superconducting phase, the order parameter turns out to have d-wave symmetry with a coherence length of a few lattice constants. In good agreement with experiments, we find no superconducting solutions for very small hole doping.
Proximity to a Mott insulating phase is likely to be an important physical ingredient of a theory that aims to describe high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates. Quantum cluster methods are well suited to describe the Mott phase. Hence, as a step toward a quantitative theory of the competition between antiferromagnetism and d-wave superconductivity in the cuprates, we use cellular dynamical mean-field theory to compute zero-temperature properties of the two-dimensional square lattice Hubbard model. The d-wave order parameter is found to scale like the superexchange coupling J for on-site interaction U comparable to or larger than the bandwidth. The order parameter also assumes a dome shape as a function of doping, while, by contrast, the gap in the single-particle density of states decreases monotonically with increasing doping. In the presence of a finite second neighbor hopping ${t}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, the zero-temperature phase diagram displays the electron-hole asymmetric competition between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity that is observed experimentally in the cuprates. Adding realistic third neighbor hopping ${t}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ improves the overall agreement with the experimental phase diagram. Since band parameters can vary depending on the specific cuprate considered, the sensitivity of the theoretical phase diagram to band parameters challenges the commonly held assumption that the doping vs Tc∕Tcmax phase diagram of the cuprates is universal. The calculated angle-resolved photoemission spectrum displays the observed electron-hole asymmetry. The tendency to homogeneous coexistence of the superconducting and antiferromagnetic order parameters is stronger than observed in most experiments but consistent with many theoretical results and with experiments in some layered high-temperature superconductors. Clearly, our calculations reproduce important features of d-wave superconductivity in the cuprates that would otherwise be considered anomalous from the point of view of the standard Bardeen--Cooper--Schrieffer approach. At strong coupling, d-wave superconductivity and antiferromagnetism naturally appear as two equally important competing instabilities of the normal phase of the same underlying Hamiltonian.
This thesis deals with different aspects of high temperature superconductivity in hole-doped cuprates. We assume the t - J model to describe the CuO2 planes of cuprates and we use a spin-charge gauge approach with spin-charge separation to describe holes in terms of a spinless fermion carrying the charge (holon) and a neutral boson carrying spin 1/2 (spinon), coupled by a slave-particle gauge field. In this framework we consider the effects of the presence of a finite density of incoherent holon pairs in the normal state as a precursor of superconductivity. We show that it is possible to take such pairs into account through a strongly direction dependent spectral weight for holons, which suppresses quasi-particles starting from the anti-nodal directions, and a wave function renormalization for the slave particle gauge field. In this way we prove that, when temperature is reduced, the formation of holon pairs causes both the deviation from linearity of the resistivity and the deviation from the constant value of the Knight shift. Moreover we point out the need for a negative next-nearest-neighbor hopping term ((t - t' - J model) to get a good continuum limit and to evaluate the Knight shift. These results are obtained through a Green's function, which follows naturally from the formalism and analytically interpolates between a Fermi liquid-like behavior and a d-wave superconductor when the coherence length of the holon pair order parameter is increased. The system preserves a finite Fermi surface until the superconducting transition, where it reduces to four nodes. Finally when, at lower temperatures, both the holon pairs and the RVB spinon pairs condense we enter the superconducting phase. In this phase we study the magnetic excitations showing how to extend to spin waves the hourglass-shape dispersion, found for spinons near the antiferromagnetic vector, if a suitable local mechanism of attraction between spinon and anti-spinon is assumed. The resulting spin wave Green's function, whose imaginary part is directly comparable with experiments, generates the hourglass with a finite gap between the two branches. Since the U(1) slave-particle gauge field gains mass in the superconducting phase via Anderson-Higgs mechanism, we propose the necessary mechanism of attraction comes from the unbroken Z2 subgroup of the U(1) gauge group.
In recent years there has been significant work aimed at understanding what effect the variation of electronic doping has on material properties. In the high transition-temperature (high-Tc) cuprate superconductors hole doping has an impact on the superconducting transition temperature. In the underdoped regime, the cuprates exhibit anomalous properties due to a pseudogap which forms and is thought to be related to Mott insulating physics. While there is no general consensus as to the mechanism underlying high temperature superconductivity, the resonating valence bond (RVB) theory proposed by Anderson in 1987 with a Gutzwiller projected d-wave BCS wave function could give a first picture of the high-Tc cuprates. We have calculated properties of the cuprates using the assumption that the pseudogap state acts as a normal state to an otherwise standard BCS mean field theory. We find that the phenomenological RVB spin liquid model proposed by Yang, Rice and Zhang (YRZ) is highly successful at describing the doping dependent features of the cuprates. Through application of the YRZ model and the tools of many-body theory we present results on anomalous properties observed in: electronic specific heat; Raman and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data; effective mass renormalization; and thermal broadening seen in ARPES. We verify that the YRZ ansatz qualitatively describes these anomalies along with their doping dependent variations. We conclude from this work that the physics underlying the pseudogap, while distinct in origin from superconductivity, is likely to arise from an RVB wavefunction that is closely related to the BCS state. In graphene, variation in doping modifies the polarization function which describes a screened electron-electron interaction. This leads to additional features in the spectral function which are due to electron-plasmon coupling. In this work, we calculated the electronic density of states including this interaction along with its doping dependence with and without an electron-phonon interaction. We find clear features of electron-electron interactions in the density of states. These features are related to the energies of plasmaron bands in the spectral function and can be modified through doping so as to be distinct from the phonon energy scales.