Magnetic oscillations measure interlayer coupling in cuprate superconductors

The magnetic oscillations in YBCO high-temperature superconductors have been widely studied over the last decade and consist of three equidistant low frequencies with a central frequency several times more intense than its two shoulders. This remains a puzzle in spite of numerous attempts to explain the corresponding small Fermi-surface pockets. Furthermore, the ARPES data indicate only four Fermi arcs with bilayer splitting, and show no sign of such small areas in the Fermi surface. Here we argue that the magnetic oscillations measured in underdoped bilayer high-temperature superconductors, in particular ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2{\mathrm{Cu}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6+\delta }$, provide a measure of the interplanar electronic coupling rather than the areas of fine-grain reconstruction of the Fermi surfaces coming from induced charge density waves. This identification is based on the relative intensities of the different peaks, as well as their angular dependence, which points to an effective Fermi surface that is larger than the oscillation frequencies, and is compatible with several indications from ARPES. The dominance of such frequencies with respect to the fundamental frequencies from the Fermi surface is natural for a strongly correlated quasi-two-dimensional electronic system where nonlinear mixings of frequencies are more resistant to sample inhomogeneity.