Unified energy law for fluctuating density wave orders in cuprate pseudogap phase

The quantum origin of the cuprate pseudogap is a central conundrum of condensed matter physics. Although many symmetry-broken scenarios were previously proposed, universal quantitative relationships have been rarely studied. Here, we report a unified energy law underlying the pseudogap, which determines the scattering rate, pseudogap energy, and its onset temperature, with a quadratic scaling of the wavevector of density wave order (DWO). The law is validated by data from over one hundred samples, and a further prediction that the master order of pseudogap transforms from fluctuating spin to charge DWO is also confirmed. Furthermore, the energy law enables our derivation of the well-known linear scalings for the resistivity of the strange metal phase and the transition temperature of the superconducting phase. Finally, it is concluded that fluctuating orders provide a critical bridge linking microscopic spectra to macroscopic transport, showing promise for the quantification of other strongly correlated materials.

Thermal dynamics and electronic temperature waves in layered correlated materials

Understanding the mechanism of heat transfer in nanoscale devices remains one of the greatest intellectual challenges in the field of thermal dynamics, by far the most relevant under an applicative standpoint. When thermal dynamics is confined to the nanoscale, the characteristic timescales become ultrafast, engendering the failure of the common description of energy propagation and paving the way to unconventional phenomena such as wave-like temperature propagation. Here, we explore layered strongly correlated materials as a platform to identify and control unconventional electronic heat transfer phenomena. We demonstrate that these systems can be tailored to sustain a wide spectrum of electronic heat transport regimes, ranging from ballistic, to hydrodynamic all the way to diffusive. Within the hydrodynamic regime, wave-like temperature oscillations are predicted up to room temperature. The interaction strength can be exploited as a knob to control the dynamics of temperature waves as well as the onset of different thermal transport regimes.

Lattice fluctuation induced pseudogap in quasi-one-dimensional Ta2NiSe5

In conventional solid-state systems, the development of an energy gap is often associated with a broken symmetry. However, strongly correlated materials can exhibit energy gaps without any global symmetry breaking -- the so-called pseudogap, most notably in the Mott insulating state1 and the fluctuating superconducting or charge density wave states. To date, lattice induced pseudogap remains elusive. With angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and single crystal x-ray diffraction, we identify a pseudogap in the quasi-1D excitonic insulator candidate Ta2NiSe5. Strong lattice contribution is revealed by the pervasive diffuse scattering well above the transition temperature and the negative electronic compressibility in the pseudogap state. Combining first-principles and microscopic model calculations, we show that inter-band electron-phonon coupling can create fluctuating phonon-mediated electron-hole pairing or hybridization. This suppresses the spectral weight on the Fermi surface, causing a metal-to-insulator-like transition without breaking the global symmetry. Our work establishes the precedence of a pseudogap with a lattice origin, highlighting Ta2NiSe5 as a room-temperature platform to study lattice-induced charge localization and low dimensional fluctuations.

Coexisting commensurate and incommensurate charge ordered phases in CoO

The subtle interplay of strong electronic correlations in a distorted crystal lattice often leads to the evolution of novel emergent functionalities in the strongly correlated materials (SCM). Here, we unravel such unprecedented commensurate (COM) and incommensurate (ICOM) charge ordered (CO) phases at room temperature in a simple transition-metal mono-oxide, namely CoO. The electron diffraction pattern unveils a COM ($$q_{1}$$ q 1 =$$\frac{1}{2}(1,1,{\bar{1}})$$ 1 2 ( 1 , 1 , 1 ¯ ) and ICOM ($$q_{2}=0.213(1,1,{\bar{1}})$$ q 2 = 0.213 ( 1 , 1 , 1 ¯ ) ) periodic lattice distortion. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) captures unidirectional and bidirectional stripe patterns of charge density modulations. The widespread phase singularities in the phase-field of the order parameter (OP) affirms the abundant topological disorder. Using, density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we demystify the underlying electronic mechanism. The DFT study shows that a cation disordering ($$\mathrm {Co}_{1-\textit{x}}\mathrm {O}, \text {with }{} \textit{x} = 4.17 \%$$ Co 1 - x O , with x = 4.17 % ) stabilizes Jahn-Teller (JT) distortion and localized aliovalent $$\mathrm {Co}^{3+}$$ Co 3 + states in CoO. Therefore, the lattice distortion accompanied with mixed valence states ($$\mathrm {Co}^{3+}, \mathrm {Co}^{2+}$$ Co 3 + , Co 2 + ) states introduces CO in CoO. Our findings offer an electronic paradigm to engineer CO to exploit the associated electronic functionalities in widely available transition-metal mono-oxides.

Unified energy law for fluctuating density wave orders in cuprate pseudogap phase

The origin of the pseudogap and its relationship to symmetry-broken orders in cuprates have been extensively debated. Here, we report a unified energy law underlying the pseudogap, which determines the scattering rate, pseudogap energy, and its onset temperature, with a quadratic scaling of the wavevector of density wave order (DWO). The law is validated by data from over one hundred samples, and a further prediction that the master order of pseudogap transforms from fluctuating spin to charge DWO is also confirmed by independent measurements. Furthermore, the energy law enables our derivation of the well-known linear scalings for the resistivity of the strange metal phase and the transition temperature of the superconducting phase, shedding light on the universal origin of various phases. Finally, it is concluded that fluctuating orders provide a critical bridge linking microscopic spectra to macroscopic transport in cuprates, showing promise for the quantification of other strongly correlated materials.

Imaging the coherent propagation of collective modes in the excitonic insulator Ta2NiSe5 at room temperature

Excitonic insulators host a condensate of electron-hole pairs at equilibrium, giving rise to collective many-body effects. Although several materials have emerged as excitonic insulator candidates, evidence of long-range coherence is lacking and the origin of the ordered phase in these systems remains controversial. Here, using ultrafast pump-probe microscopy, we investigate the possible excitonic insulator Ta2NiSe5. Below 328 K, we observe the anomalous micrometer-scale propagation of coherent modes at velocities of ~105 m/s, which we attribute to the hybridization between phonon modes and the phase mode of the condensate. We develop a theoretical framework to support this explanation and propose that electronic interactions provide a substantial contribution to the ordered phase in Ta2NiSe5. These results allow us to understand how the condensate’s collective modes transport energy and interact with other degrees of freedom. Our study provides a unique paradigm for the investigation and manipulation of these properties in strongly correlated materials.

Landau-Fermi liquids in disguise

In periodic systems of interacting electrons, Fermi and Luttinger surfaces refer to the locations within the Brillouin zone of poles and zeros, respectively, of the single-particle Green's function at zero energy and temperature. Such difference in analytic properties underlies the emergence of well-defined quasiparticles close to a Fermi surface, in contrast to their supposed non-existence close to a Luttinger surface, where the single-particle density-of-states vanishes at zero energy. We here show that, contrary to such common belief, coherent `quasiparticles` do exist also approaching a Luttinger surface in compressible interacting electron systems. Thermodynamic and dynamic properties of such `quasiparticles` are just those of conventional ones. For instance, they yield well defined quantum oscillations in Luttinger's surface and linear in temperature specific heat, which is striking given the vanishing density of states of physical electrons, but actually not uncommon in strongly correlated materials.

Spin dynamics and Griffiths singularity in the random quantum Ising magnet PrTiNbO6

In crystalline magnets, interaction randomness is usually thought as a negative factor preventing interesting quantum phenomena to occur. However, intriguing interplay between randomness and quantumness can also leads to unique phenomena in the strongly correlated materials. Among others, the random transverse-field Ising spin chain (RTIC) hosts a renowned quantum Griffiths phase. Although the RTIC model has been regarded as a toy model for long, here we materialize this model with the compound PrTiNbO6, which has a disordered ground state with pronounced quantum fluctuations and continuous spin excitations. The observed anomalous spin dynamics of PrTiNbO6 can be accounted by the RTIC model with a consistent set of parameters determined from fitting the thermodynamic data, and it is ascribed to the quantum Griffiths rare regions in the system. Our results provide a concrete example of quantum Griffiths magnet, and offer an ideal experimental platform for investigating the dynamical properties of random many-body system.

Review on quasi-2D square planar nickelates

In strongly correlated materials, lattice, charge, spin and orbital degrees of freedom interact with each other, leading to emergent physical properties such as superconductivity, colossal magnetic resistance and metal-insulator transition....