Journal Article

Incoherent strange metal sharply bounded by a critical doping in Bi2212

Xu, Ke-Jun, Hashimoto, Makoto, Shen, Zhi-Xun, Song, Dongjoon, Zaanen, Jan, Chen, Su-Di, Lu, Dong-Hui, He, Yu, He, Jun-Feng, Devereaux, Thomas P., Eisaki, Hiroshi

2019

Overview

In normal metals, macroscopic properties are understood using the concept of quasiparticles. In the cuprate high-temperature superconductors, the metallic state above the highest transition temperature is anomalous and is known as the “strange metal.” We studied this state using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. With increasing doping across a temperatureindependent critical value p c ∼ 0.19, we observed that near the Brillouin zone boundary, the strange metal, characterized by an incoherent spectral function, abruptly reconstructs into a more conventional metal with quasiparticles. Above the temperature of superconducting fluctuations, we found that the pseudogap also discontinuously collapses at the very same value of p c. These observations suggest that the incoherent strange metal is a distinct state and a prerequisite for the pseudogap; such findings are incompatible with existing pseudogap quantum critical point scenarios.

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science,The American Association for the Advancement of Science,AAAS
• Subject: Brillouin zones / Climate / Collapse / Critical point / Cuprates / Doping / Environmental conditions / High temperature / High temperature superconductors / MATERIALS SCIENCE / Metals / Phase diagrams / Photoelectric emission / Photoelectron spectroscopy / Physicists / Spectroscopy / Spectrum analysis / Transition temperature / Transition temperatures / Variation