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arXiv:cond-mat/0208419

On the origin of the pseudogap in underdoped cuprates

Thomas Maier, Mark Jarrell, Alexandru Macridin, F. C. Zhang

Published Aug 21, 2002• 0 citations
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Abstract

We investigate the microscopic origin of the pseudogap in the weakly doped 2D Hubbard model using Quantum Monte Carlo within the dynamical cluster approximation. We compare our results with proposed scenarios for the pseudogap. All our numerical evidence is in favor of spin-charge separation as described in the resonating valence bond picture as the cause of the pseudogap behavior. Scenarios of "preformed pairs", the coupling of quasiparticles to antiferromagnetic spin-fluctuations and stripes are inconsistent with our results.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0208419

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We investigate the microscopic origin of the pseudogap in the weakly doped 2D Hubbard model using Quantum Monte Carlo within the dynamical cluster approximation. We compare our results with proposed scenarios for the pseudogap. All our numerical evidence is in favor of spin-charge separation as described in the resonating valence bond picture as the cause of the pseudogap behavior. Scenarios of "preformed pairs", the coupling of quasiparticles to antiferromagnetic spin-fluctuations and stripes are inconsistent with our results.
There are two seemingly unrelated puzzles about the cuprate superconductors. The first puzzle concerns the strong non-BCS behavior around xc{x}_{c}xc​, the end point of the superconducting dome on the overdoped side, where the cuprate is believed to be well described by the Fermi-liquid theory. This is the most evident in the observed ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}(0)\ensuremath{-}{T}_{c}$ scaling and the large amount of uncondensed optical spectral weight at low energy. The second puzzle concerns the remarkable robustness of the ddd-wave pairing against the inevitable disorder effect in such a doped system, which is also totally unexpected from the conventional BCS picture. Here we show that these two puzzles are deeply connected to the origin of a third puzzle about the cuprate superconductors, namely, the mysterious quantum critical behavior observed around x∗{x}^{*}x∗, the so called pseudogap end point. Through a systematic variational Monte Carlo (VMC) study of the disordered 2D $t\ensuremath{-}J$ model from the resonating valence bond (RVB) perspective, we find that the ddd-wave pairing in this model is remarkably more robust against the disorder effect than that in a conventional ddd-wave BCS superconductor. We find that such remarkable robustness can be attributed to the spin-charge separation mechanism in the RVB picture, through which the ddd-wave RVB pairing of the charge-neutral spinons becomes essentially immune to the disorder potential except for the secondary effect related to the modulation of the local doping level by the disorder. We propose that there exists a Mott transition at x∗{x}^{*}x∗, where the RVB pairing in the underdoped regime is transmuted into the increasingly more BCS-like pairing for x>x∗x>{x}^{*}x>x∗, whose increasing fragility against the disorder effect leads to the non-BCS behavior and the ultimate suppression of superconductivity around xc{x}_{c}xc​.
We perform a fluctuation analysis of the pairing interaction in the hole-doped Hubbard model within the dynamical cluster approximation. Our analysis reveals that spin-fluctuation-mediated pairing differs qualitatively in the over- and underdoped regimes. In the underdoped regime, spin fluctuations open a pseudogap. We show that in this regime the spin-fermion coupling mediates a giant attraction between antinodal fermions. This explains why superconductivity survives at underdoping in the Hubbard model and cuprates, despite the lack of coherent fermionic quasiparticles in the pseudogap regime.
A tale of two pairs: on the origin of the pseudogap end point in the high-Tc_{c}c​ cuprate superconductors
There are two seemingly unrelated puzzles about the cuprate superconductors. The first puzzle concerns the strong non-BCS behavior around xcx_{c}xc​, the end point of the superconducting dome on the overdoped side, where the cuparte is believed to be well described by the fermi liquid theory. This is the most evident in the observed ρs(0)−Tcρ_{s}(0)-T_{c}ρs​(0)−Tc​ scaling and the large amount of uncondensed optical spectral weight at low energy. The second puzzle concerns the remarkable robustness of the d-wave pairing against the inevitable disorder effect in such a doped system, which is also totally unexpected from the conventional BCS picture. Here we show that these two puzzles are deeply connected to the origin of a third puzzle about the cuprate superconductors, namely, the mysterious quantum critical behavior observed around x∗x^{*}x∗, the so-called pseudogap end point. Through a systematic variational optimization of the disordered 2D t−Jt-Jt−J model from the resonating valence bond(RVB) perspective, we find that the d-wave pairing in this model is remarkably more robust against the disorder effect than that in a conventional d-wave BCS superconductor. We find that such remarkable robustness can be attributed to the spin-charge separation mechanism in the RVB picture, through which the d-wave RVB pairing of the charge neutral spinons becomes essentially immune to the impurity potential except for the secondary effect related to the modulation of the local doping level by the disorder. We propose that there exists a Mott transition at x∗x^{*}x∗, where the RVB pairing in the underdoped regime is transmuted into the increasingly more BCS-like pairing for x>x∗x>x^{*}x>x∗, whose increasing fragility against the disorder effect leads to the non-BCS behavior and the ultimate suppression of superconductivity around xcx_{c}xc​.
Evidence that the pseudogap (PG) in a near-optimally doped Bi2_22​Sr2_22​CaCu2_22​O8+δ_{8+δ}8+δ​ sample destroys the BCS logarithmic pairing instability [1] raises again the question of the role of the PG in the high-temperature superconducting cuprates [2]. The elimination of the BCS instability is consistent with the view that the PG competes with superconductivity. However, as noted in [1], the onset of superconductivity with a Tc∼90T_c \sim 90Tc​∼90 K suggests an alternative scenario in which the PG reflects the formation of short range pairing correlations. Here, we report results obtained from a dynamic cluster quantum Monte Carlo approximation (DCA) for a 2D Hubbard model and conclude that (1) the PG, like the superconductivity, arises due to short-range antiferromagnetic correlations and (2) contrary to the usual case in which the pairing instability arises from the Cooper instability, here, the strength of the spin-fluctuations increases as the temperature decreases leading to the pairing instability.
We study the pseudogaps in the spectra of the 2D Hubbard model using both finite-size and dynamical cluster approximation (DCA) quantum Monte Carlo calculations. At half-filling, a charge pseudogap, accompanied by non-Fermi-liquid behavior in the self-energy, is shown to persist in the thermodynamic limit. The DCA (finite-size) method systematically underestimates (overestimates) the width of the pseudogap. A spin pseudogap is not seen at half-filling. At finite doping, a divergent d-wave pair susceptibility is observed.
We investigate the doped two-dimensional Hubbard model at finite temperature using controlled diagrammatic Monte Carlo calculations allowing for the computation of spectral properties in the infinite-size limit and, crucially, with arbitrary momentum resolution. We show that three distinct regimes are found as a function of doping and interaction strength, corresponding to a weakly correlated metal with properties close to those of the non-interacting system, a correlated metal with strong interaction effects including a reshaping of the Fermi surface, and a pseudogap regime at low doping in which quasiparticle excitations are selectively destroyed near the antinodal regions of momentum space. We study the physical mechanism leading to the pseudogap and show that it forms both at weak coupling when the magnetic correlation length is large and at strong coupling when it is shorter. In both cases, we show that spin-fluctuation theory can be modified in order to account for the behavior of the non-local component of the self-energy. We discuss the fate of the pseudogap as temperature goes to zero and show that, remarkably, this regime extrapolates precisely to the ordered stripe phase found by ground-state methods. This handshake between finite temperature and ground-state results significantly advances the elaboration of a comprehensive picture of the physics of the doped Hubbard model.