INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROORKEE

Symmetry of Order Parameter and Energy Gap in High

Temperature Cuprate Superconductors

SACHIN VERMA
Ph.D. 1st yr
Supervisor : Dr. Ajay
Department of Physics
I.I.T. Roorkee
 CONTENTS

• Introduction - BCS superconductors , energy gap in BCS

(conventional ) superconductors , high temperature cuprate
superconductor and failure of BCS theory to explain
superconductivity in cuprates and others high Tc
superconductors.
• Experimental techniques to measure superconducting energy
gap and order parameter– ARPES and SQUID
• Theoretical study of strongly correlated materials – Hubbard
model and DMFT.

2
 Introduction

Reference: A. Carrington , University of Bristol 2003

3
BCS SUPERCONDUCTORS and nature of their energy gap

Conventional pairing
Attractive interaction through electron-
phonon interaction. angular momentum l =0
spin singlet
(-k↑ , k↓ )
Bcs theory is for fermi liquid like metals.
At T=0K , energy gap ;
− 𝟏ൗ
∆=𝟐ℏ𝝎𝑫 𝒆 𝝀,
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝝀= |𝑔𝑒𝑓𝑓 | × g(𝐸𝑓 ) , 𝝀<<1 for weak coupling
limit.

A𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑻 , 𝑻 ≠ 𝟎 ;
ℏ𝜔𝐷 𝐸
1=𝝀 ‫׬‬0 𝑑𝜀 tanh( ),
2𝑘𝑇
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝐸 = 𝜀 2 + ∆2 Reference : Theory of superconductivity (J.R. Schrieffer)

Reference: James F Annett - Superconductivity , superfluidity

and condensates
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 Energy gap in superconductors

s wave p wave d wave

Original BCS Superfluid 3He,Sr2RuO4 cuprates
Reference : C. C. Tsuei and J. R. Kirtley Pairing symmetry in cuprate superconductors Rev. Mod. Phys., Vol. 72, No. 4,
October 2000
Fig : Quora I . M. Vishik
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CUPRATE SUPERCONDUCTORS

Reference : hoffman.physics.harvard.edu

BCS FAILED!
1) Strong electron phonon coupling distort the crystal structure

2) Isotope effect is almost negligible

3) Magnetic ordering( antiferromagnetic order)

Reference : James F Annett

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 YBCO crystal structure
Structural transition with temperature : For high temperature , tetragonal (a=b≠
𝑐)
For low temperature ( superconducting) , orthorhombic ( a≠ 𝑏 ≠ 𝑐)
Quasi 2D Structure : In CuO2 plane the interaction is much stronger as compared to out of
plane.

Anisotropy in ab plane and c direction

Ex : Resistivity , critical magnetic field , coherence length ,
penetration depth all have anisotropic behavior .

The superconductivity in cuprates occurs in CuO2

plane that are weakly coupled to each other via
josephson tunneling .

Fig : Cu𝑂2 plane

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EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES AND ORDER
PARAMETER

ORDER PARAMETER: Ѱ = 𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝜑 or Ѱ = ∆(𝑘)𝑒 𝑖𝜑

Experiments to gain information about superconducting order

parameter

1) Impurity doping
2) Specific heat
3) Thermal conductivity
4) Angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES)
5) Josephson interferometry (SQUID)

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 a) ARPES (Non phase sensitive experimental
technique)
• Experimentally , ARPES is used to
observe the distribution of
the electrons (density of single-
particle electronic excitations) in
the reciprocal space of solids.

Monochromatic
radiation

Fig : ARPES setup

Fig : Principle of ARPES technique

Reference : Angle resolved photoemission studies of the cuprate superconductors (Andrea Damascelli ,
sample
Zahid Hussain , Zhi-Xun Shen)
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Angle Resolved Photoelectron
spectroscopy

Surface breaks crystal symmetry k⊥ is not a good quantum number

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Three step model
Step 1: Excitations in Solids Step 2: Transport to the Surface Step 3: Transition in Vacuum

Total photoemission intensity = optical transition × scattering probability × transmission probability

Reference : Angle resolve photoemission studies of the cuprate superconductors (Andrea Damascelli , Zahid Hussain , Zhi-
Xun Shen)
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 1
G(k,𝜔) =
𝜔−𝜖𝑘 −σ(𝑘,𝜔)
𝟏
Single Particle Spectral Function , A(k,𝝎) = − Im(G(k,𝝎))
𝝅

Non interacting Fermi liquid

Single Particle Spectral Function 𝚪𝒌/𝝅
Infinite lifetime
A(k,𝝎) =
𝟏 𝑰𝒎 σ(𝒌,𝝎) (𝝎−𝝐𝒌 )𝟐 +𝚪𝒌𝟐
A(k,𝝎) = 𝜹 (𝝎 − 𝝐𝒌 ) A(k,𝝎) = − 𝝅 [𝝎−𝝐 −𝑅𝑒 σ 𝑘,𝜔 ]𝟐 +[𝑰𝒎 σ 𝒌,𝝎 ]𝟐
𝒌
1
𝒎∗ > 𝒎 𝝐𝒌 < |𝝐𝒌 | 𝜏𝑘 =
Γ𝑘
σ(𝒌, 𝝎) : The “self -energy” – captures the effect of interactions.
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 ARPES: advantages and limitations
Advantages Limitations
• Direct information about
electronic states!
• Straightforward comparison
with theory - little or no
modelling.
• High-resolution information
about BOTH energy and
momentum.
• Surface-sensitive probe
• Materials with a quasi-2D Not bulk sensitive
electronic structure are easiest to • Requires clean, atomically flat
measure. surfaces in ultra-high vacuum
• Can be applied to small • Cannot be studied as a function of
samples pressure or magnetic field.
(100 um x 100 um x 1 nm)
Reference: Angle resolve photoemission studies of the cuprate superconductors (Andrea Damascelli , Zahid Hussain ,
Zhi-Xun Shen)
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 Experimental Study of hole Doping in 𝑩𝒊𝟐 𝑺𝒓𝟐 𝑪𝒂𝑪𝒖𝟐 𝑶𝟖+𝒛
using ARPES

Fig : Energy gap in high transition temperature cuprate superconductors ( M.Hasimota, I.M.Vishik,Rui-Hua He,Thomas P.
Devereaux and Zhi-Xun Shen)

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b) SQUID( Phase sensitive experimental technique)

i= ic sin(𝜑)

FIG:DC SQUID experiment for measuring the relative phase

anisotropy of the superconducting order parameter.

Reference:D.J.Van Harlingen (Tests of pairing-state symmetry)

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Primary keys to this experiment :

i = ica sin(𝜑a) + icb sin(𝜑b)

phase constraint on 𝝋𝒂 and 𝝋𝒃

𝜱
𝝋𝒂 − 𝝋𝒃 + 𝟐𝝅 + 𝜹𝒂𝒃 = 𝟎 Where 𝜱 = 𝜱𝒆𝒙𝒕 + 𝑳𝑱
𝜱𝟎

Intrinsic phase shift between a and b

direction
𝜹𝒂𝒃 =0 for s wave

𝜹𝒂𝒃 = π for d wave (𝒅𝒙𝟐−𝒚𝟐 )

Flux dependence of critical current ( for DC SQUID with equal junction critical currents)

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The corner SQUID experiment

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Theoretical models

 Due to spatial confinement , strong coulomb interaction

Such strongly interacting or “correlated” electrons cannot
be described as embedded in static mean field generated by
the other electrons.

 The conventional band theory fails!

Dynamical mean-field theory and the EOM as the impurity solver

Goal : study and explain lattice systems of strongly correlated electron

systems.
Dynamical : on-site quantum fluctuations treated exactly.

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 Simplest standard model

Hubbard model : standard model

H = −𝒕 σ<𝒊,𝒋>,𝝈 𝒄†𝒊𝝈 𝒄𝒋𝝈 + 𝑯. 𝒄. − 𝝁 σ𝒊,𝝈 𝒄†𝒊𝝈 𝒄𝒊𝝈 + 𝑼 σ𝒊 𝒏𝒊↑ 𝒏𝒊↓

The Hubbard model is responsible for

1) Mott’s metal insulator transition
2) High temperature superconductivity

pd Hamiltonian

There are two parameters :

Electron density n = Nel/Nsite

Interaction strength U/t

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Mott metal insulator transition

In the limit of weak interactions: U/t << 1

The physics is dominated by the kinetic Hamiltonian and the on-site interaction U can be
treated as a small perturbation

𝐻𝑜 = −𝑡 ෍ †
𝑐𝑖𝜎 𝑐𝑗𝜎 + 𝐻.data
photoemission 𝑐. − †
, 𝜇 ෍ 𝑐𝑖𝜎 𝑐𝑖𝜎 𝐻′ = 𝑈 ෍ 𝑛𝑖↑ 𝑛𝑖↓
<𝑖,𝑗>,𝜎 𝑖,𝜎 𝑖

F.T
Kinetic Hamiltonian for three dimensional lattice :
†
𝐻𝑜 = σ𝑘,𝜎(𝜖𝑘 − 𝜇) 𝑐𝑘𝜎 𝑐𝑘𝜎

𝜖𝑘 = −2𝑡 (𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑘𝑥 + 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑘𝑦 + 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑘𝑧 )

1
𝒢(k,𝜔) = 𝜔−𝜖
𝑘 −𝜇

For n =1 , the band will be half filled , i.e., we would have a metal.

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In the limit of strong interactions: U/t >> 1
We should invert the description and treat the on-site interaction term as the zeroth order
Hamiltonian , the kinetic term playing the role of a perturbation

† †
𝐻𝑂 = 𝑈 ෍ 𝑛𝑖↑ 𝑛𝑖↓ 𝐻′ = −𝑡 ෍ 𝑐𝑖𝜎 𝑐𝑗𝜎 + 𝐻. 𝑐. − 𝜇 ෍ 𝑐𝑖𝜎 𝑐𝑖𝜎
𝑖 <𝑖,𝑗>,𝜎 𝑖,𝜎

Hubbard–I solution
1−<𝑛−𝜎 > <𝑛−𝜎 >
𝒢𝜎,𝜎 𝑘, 𝜔 = +
𝜔−𝜔− (𝑘) 𝜔−𝜔+ (𝑘)

𝑈 + 𝑡(𝑘) 1
𝜔± = ± 𝑈 2 + 𝑡 2 (𝑘)
2 2

This describes an insulator solution

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 Self-consistency loop for the DMFT

Impurity solver 𝒢𝑖𝑚𝑝 (𝑖𝜔𝑛 )

( equation of σ 𝒊𝝎𝒏 = 𝒢𝟎−𝟏 𝒊𝝎𝒏 − 𝒢𝒊𝒎𝒑
−𝟏
(i𝝎𝒏 )
motion method) Dyson Equation

𝓖𝟎 𝒊𝝎𝒏
Weiss field
෍(𝒊𝝎𝒏 )
−𝟏
𝓖−𝟏
𝟎 (i𝝎 𝒏 ) = σ(𝒊𝝎𝒏 ) + 𝓖𝒊,𝒊 (i𝝎𝒏 )

𝓖𝒊𝒎𝒑 𝒊𝝎𝒏 = 𝓖𝒊,𝒊 𝒊𝝎𝒏 𝟏 𝟏

𝓖𝒊,𝒊 𝒊𝝎𝒏 = ෍
𝑵𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝝎𝒏 − 𝝐𝒌 + 𝝁 − σ(𝒊𝝎𝒏 )
𝒌
Repeat until convergence is reached
The mast difficult task is to find the solution of impurity solver

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Impurity solver

How to treat
Anderson model?
1) Perturbation theory
analytic
(PT)
controllable
tricky to extend into strong coupling (Kondo) regime
2) Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG)
accurate low energy physics
inherently numerical
3) Equations of motion (EOM)
analytic
as good as PT when PT is valid
?not controlled for Kondo, but can give reasonable answers

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Equations of motion

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 • No interactions (U=0)

Γ
fully characterizes the leads

A(k,ꞷ)
D
Reference : 1) Antoine Georges -Strongly correlated electron materials : Dynamic mean field theory and electronic structure.
2)Study of single impurity Anderson model and dynamical mean field theory based on equation of motion method (dissertation)
3)Introduction to Green function and many body perturbation theory 20 March 2013

25
 conclusion
A key to understand the mechanism of high-T, superconductivity is the symmetry of the
superconducting order parameter. For conventional BCS theory the order parameter has s wave
symmetry , reflecting the spherically symmetric nature of the pair wave function. For the high-Tc,
cuprates, theoretical analysis of the crucial CuO2 plane with consideration of the strong on-site
Coulomb interaction leads to other symmetries of the order parameter. In particular, pairing theories
based on the Hubbard model or its derivatives lead to a d-wave order parameter or a mixed
symmetry order parameter with a strong d-wave component .

Angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) from Bi2212 has played an important role in helping us
understand the cuprate superconductors. For Bi2212, ARPES is sensitive to both the normal-state
Fermi surface and the superconducting gap . In fact, its ability to measure the superconducting gap
as a function of crystal momentum is currently a unique capability, providing an opportunity to probe
the symmetry of the order parameter. Although the superconducting gap as revealed by ARPES
only reflects the magnitude of the order parameter, it still provides important constraints for
theoretical models.

Phase sensitive experiment like josephson interferometry allowing an unambiguous determination

of the symmetry of the pairing state. These experiments, based on the interference of the quantum-
mechanical phases in Josephson tunnel junctions and dc SQUID devices, give strong evidence for
pairing in a channel with d-wave symmetry in the most widely studied cuprate YBCO.

26
 References
1. Superconductivity , superfluidity and condensates by James F Annett
2. The superconducting gap (Tom Timusk)
3. C. C. Tsuei and J. R. Kirtley Pairing symmetry in cuprate superconductors Rev. Mod. Phys., Vol. 72, No. 4, October
2000
4. Angle resolve photoemission studies of the cuprate superconductors (Andrea Damascelli , Zahid Hussain , Zhi-Xun
Shen)
5. A brief update of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on a correlated electron system( WS Lee, I
M Vishik, D H Lu and Z-X Shen)
6. Energy gap in high transition temperature cuprate superconductors ( M.Hasimota, I.M.Vishik,Rui-Hua He,Thomas P.
Devereaux and Zhi-Xun Shen)
7. Phase sensitive test of the symmetry of the paring state in high temperature superconductors – evidence of d wave
symmetry (D.J. Van Harlingen)
8. The Hubbard model at half a century , editorial NATURE PHYSICS
9. An introduction to Hubbard Hamiltonian ( R.T.Scalettar)
10. Strongly correlated electron materials : Dynamical Mean Field theory and electronic structure ( Antoine Georges)
11. Study of single impurity Anderson model and dynamical mean field theory based on equation of motion method
(dissertation)
12. Introduction to Green function and many body perturbation theory 20 March 2013
13. Quora

27
Thank you

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