APS Logo

Giant thermal Hall conductivity in the pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors

Invited

Abstract

The nature of the pseudogap phase of cuprates remains a major puzzle. Although there are indications that this phase breaks various symmetries, there is no consensus on its fundamental nature [1].
Fermi-surface, transport and thermodynamic signatures of the pseudogap phase are reminiscent of a transition into a phase with antiferromagnetic order, but evidence for an associated long-range magnetic order is still lacking. Here we report measurements of the thermal Hall conductivity κxy in the normal state of four different cuprates and show that a large negative κxy signal is a property of the pseudogap phase, appearing with the onset of that phase at the critical doping p* [2]. It is also a property of the Mott insulator at p ≈ 0, where κxy has the largest reported magnitude of any insulator. Since this negative κxy signal grows as the system becomes increasingly insulating electrically, it cannot be attributed to conventional mobile charge carriers. Nor is it due to magnons, since it exists in the absence of magnetic order. Our observation is reminiscent of the thermal Hall conductivity of insulators with spin-liquid states [3, 4, 5] pointing to neutral excitations with spin chirality in the pseudogap phase of cuprates.

[1] Proust & Taillefer, Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 10, 409 (2019).
[2] Grissonnanche et al., Nature 571, 376 (2019).
[3] Kasahara et al. Nature 559, 227 (2018).
[4] Lee et al., PRB 91, 125413 (2015).
[5] Samajdar et al. Nat. Phys. doi:10.1038/s41567-019-0669-3 (2019)

–

Presenters

  • Gael Grissonnanche

    Universite de Sherbrooke, University of Sherbrooke

Authors

  • Gael Grissonnanche

    Universite de Sherbrooke, University of Sherbrooke

  • Anaelle Legros

    Johns Hopkins University, Universite de Sherbrooke

  • Sven Badoux

    Universite de Sherbrooke, University of Sherbrooke

  • Etienne Lefrancois

    Universite de Sherbrooke

  • Victor Zatko

    CNRS/THALES, Universite de Sherbrooke

  • Maude le Lizaire

    Universite de Sherbrooke

  • Francis Laliberte

    Universite de Sherbrooke, University of Sherbrooke

  • Adrien Gourgout

    Universite de Sherbrooke, University of Sherbrooke

  • Jianshi Zhou

    Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, Materials Science and Engineering program, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

  • Sunseng Pyon

    Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo, University of Tokyo

  • Tomohiro Takayama

    Max Planck Inst, University of Tokyo

  • Hidenori Takagi

    Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, University of Tokyo

  • shimpei ono

    Central Research Institute of Electric Power, Japan, CRIEPI, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry

  • Nicolas Doiron-Leyraud

    Universite de Sherbrooke, University of Sherbrooke

  • Louis Taillefer

    Universite de Sherbrooke, University of Sherbrooke