2007/10/31 by Sudip Chakravarty, Hae‐Young Kee, Hae-Young Kee · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.0804002105
published as Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 8835 (2008) · Final version with a correction of a minor typo; 6 pages, 2 figures
arxiv created 2008/06/24 · openalex publication_date 2008/06/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recent quantum oscillation measurements in high-temperature superconductors in high magnetic fields and low temperatures have ushered in a new era. These experiments explore the normal state from which superconductivity arises and provide evidence of a reconstructed Fermi surface consisting of electron and hole pockets in a regime in which such a possibility was previously considered to be remote. More specifically, the Hall coefficient has been found to oscillate according to the Onsager quantization condition, involving only fundamental constants and the areas of the pockets, but with a sign that is negative. Here, we explain the observations with the theory that the alleged normal state exhibits a hidden order, the d-density wave, which breaks symmetries signifying time reversal, translation by a lattice spacing, and a rotation by an angle pi/2, while the product of any two symmetry operations is preserved. The success of our analysis underscores the importance of spontaneous breaking of symmetries, Fermi surface reconstruction, and conventional quasiparticles. We primarily focus on the version of the order that is commensurate with the underlying crystalline lattice, but we also touch on the consequences if the order were to incommensurate. It is shown that whereas commensurate order results in two independent oscillation frequencies as a function of the inverse of the applied magnetic field, incommensurate order leads to three independent frequencies. The oscillation amplitudes, however, are determined by the mobilities of the charge carriers comprising the Fermi pockets.