Electronic structure and superconductivity in unconventional cuprates Ba$_2$CuO$_{3+\delta}$

ORAL

Abstract

We study the recently discovered $73$K high-$T_c$ superconductor Ba$_2$CuO$_{3+\delta}$ at $\delta\simeq0.2$
grown under high pressure. Neutron experiments find that the polycrystal exhibits a structure similar to La$_2$CuO$_4$, but with dramatically different lattice parameters due to the CuO$_6$ octahedron compression. The octahedron compression leads to an {\em inverted} Cu $3d$ $e_g$ complex with the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital sitting below the $d_{3z^2-r^2}$ orbital and an electronic structure highly unusual compared to the conventional cuprates. We conjecture that the material realizes a new path of in-plane positional oxygen doping, where the doped oxygens create matrices of compressed Ba$_2$CuO$_4$ embedded in Ba$_2$CuO$_{3}$. Constructing a strongly correlated two-orbital model at hole doping $x=2\delta$ of the Cu $d^9$ state, we show that the multi-orbital exchange interactions lead to an antiphase $d$-wave superconducting state, i.e. a nodal $d_\pm$ pairing state. These findings suggest that the class of unconventional cuprates with liberated orbitals as doped two-band Mott insulators can be a direction for realizing high-T$_c$ superconductivity.

*The work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences Grant No. DE-FG02-99ER45747.

Presenters

  • Kun Jiang

    • Boston College
    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Physics, Boston College
    • Department of Physics, Boston College

Authors

  • Kun Jiang

    • Boston College
    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Physics, Boston College
    • Department of Physics, Boston College
  • Congcong Le

    • Kavli Institute of Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Kavli Institute of Theoretical Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Fu-Chun Zhang

    • Kavli Institute of Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • University of Hong Kong
    • Kavli Institute of Theoretical Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Ziqiang Wang

    • Boston College
    • Department of Physics, Boston College
    • Physics, Boston College
  • Jiangping Hu

    • Chinese Academy of Sciences,Institute of Physics
    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science,Beijing 100190, China
    • Beijing National Research Center for Condensed Matter Physics, and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science