Beyond-Hubbard Pairing in a Cuprate Ladder

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The Hubbard model is believed to capture the essential physics of cuprate superconductors. However, recent theoretical studies suggest that it fails to reproduce a robust and homogeneous superconducting ground state. Here, using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering and density matrix renormalization group calculations, we show that magnetic excitations in the prototypical cuprate ladder Sr 14 Cu 24 O 41 are inconsistent with those of a simple Hubbard model. The magnetic response of hole carriers, contributing to an emergent branch of spin-flip excitations, is strongly suppressed. This effect is the consequence of strong d -wavelike pairing, enhanced by nearly an order of magnitude through a large nearest-neighbor attractive interaction and persisting up to at least 260 K. The close connection between the physics of cuprate ladders and that of the two-dimensional compounds suggests that such an enhanced hole pairing may be a universal feature of superconducting cuprates. Published by the American Physical Society 2025
All Related Versions
Funding Information
  • U.S. Department of Energy
  • Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0022883, DE-SC0022311)
  • Office of Science
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory (DE-SC0012704)
  • Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering (DE-SC0012704)
  • National Research Foundation of Korea (2022M3H4A1A04074153, 2020M3H4A2084417)
  • Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea (2023-1st-SSS-002)
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • National Science Foundation (DMR-2039351)

This publication has 57 references indexed in Scilit: