English

Observation of a $d$-wave gap in electron-doped Sr$_2$IrO$_4$

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2016-10-31 v2 Materials Science Superconductivity

Abstract

High temperature superconductivity in cuprates emerges out of a highly enigmatic `pseudogap' metal phase. The mechanism of high temperature superconductivity is likely encrypted in the elusive relationship between the two phases, which spectroscopically is manifested as Fermi arcs---disconnected segments of zero-energy states---collapsing into dd-wave point nodes upon entering the superconducting phase. Here, we reproduce this distinct cuprate phenomenology in the 5dd transition-metal oxide Sr2_2IrO4_4. Using angle-resolved photoemission, we show that clean, low-temperature phase of 6-8%\% electron-doped Sr2_2IrO4_4 has gapless excitations only at four isolated points in the Brillouin zone with a predominant dd-wave symmetry of the gap. Our work thus establishes a connection between the low-temperature dd-wave instability and the previously reported high-temperature Fermi arcs in electron-doped Sr2_2IrO4_4. Although the physical origin of the dd-wave gap remains to be understood, Sr2_2IrO4_4 is a first non-cuprate material to spectroscopically reproduce the complete phenomenology of the cuprates, thus offering a new material platform to investigate the relationship between the pseudogap and the dd-wave gap.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1506.06639,
  title  = {Observation of a $d$-wave gap in electron-doped Sr$_2$IrO$_4$},
  author = {Y. K. Kim and N. H. Sung and J. D. Denlinger and B. J. Kim},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.06639},
  year   = {2016}
}