skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Magic Gap Ratio for Optimally Robust Fermionic Condensation and Its Implications for High-$$T_c$$ Superconductivity

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters

Bardeen-Schrieffer-Cooper (BCS) and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) occur at opposite limits of a continuum of pairing interaction strength between fermions. A crossover between these limits is readily observed in a cold atomic Fermi gas. Whether it occurs in other systems such as the high temperature superconducting cuprates has remained an open question. We uncover here unambiguous evidence for a BCS-BEC crossover in the cuprates by identifying a universal magic gap ratio 2Δ/kBTc ≈ 6.5 (where Δ is the pairing gap and Tc is the transition temperature) at which paired fermion condensates become optimally robust. At this gap ratio, corresponding to the unitary point in a cold atomic Fermi gas, the measured condensate fraction N0 and the height of the jump δγ(Tc) in the coefficient γ of the fermionic specific heat at Tc are strongly peaked. In the cuprates, δγ(Tc) is peaked at this gap ratio when Δ corresponds to the antinodal spectroscopic gap, thus reinforcing its interpretation as the pairing gap. We find the peak in δγ(Tc) also to coincide with a normal state maximum in γ, which is indicative of a pairing fluctuation pseudogap above Tc.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; DMR-1157490; DMR-1164477
OSTI ID:
1879408
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-22-26910; TRN: US2307646
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 129, Issue 1; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (117)

Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules journal December 2003
Evidence for a vestigial nematic state in the cuprate pseudogap phase journal June 2019
BCS–BEC crossover: From high temperature superconductors to ultracold superfluids journal June 2005
Generic superconducting phase behavior in high- T c cuprates: T c variation with hole concentration in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 δ journal May 1995
Evolution of the Normal State of a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas from a Pseudogap Phase to a Molecular Bose Gas journal February 2011
BCS to Bose crossover: Broken-symmetry state journal June 1997
Many-body physics with ultracold gases journal July 2008
Transition from strong to weak coupling regime with lowering Tc in Tl2Ba2CuO6+x journal December 1994
Electronic specific heat of Tl2Ba2CuO6+? from 2 K to 300 K for 0???0.1 journal February 1994
Anomalous Criticality in the Electrical Resistivity of La2-xSrxCuO4 journal January 2009
Parallel spin stripes and their coexistence with superconducting ground states at optimal and high doping in La 1.6 x Nd 0.4 Sr x CuO 4 journal May 2021
Specific-Heat of YBa 2 Cu 3 O x up to 400 K: High-Resolution Adiabatic Measurements and Ab-initio LDA Phonon Calculations journal July 2009
Optically induced coherent transport far above T c in underdoped YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 + δ journal May 2014
Specific heat of Tl2Ba2CuO6 (“2201”) 90 K superconducting ceramics in magnetic fields up to 14 T journal June 1995
Universal Superconductor-Insulator Transition and T c Depression in Zn-Substituted High- T c Cuprates in the Underdoped Regime journal January 1996
Pseudogap Precursor of the Superconducting Gap in Under- and Overdoped Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 + δ journal January 1998
Revealing the Superfluid Lambda Transition in the Universal Thermodynamics of a Unitary Fermi Gas journal January 2012
Superconductor-to-nonsuperconductor transition in ( La 1 x Sr x ) 2 CuO 4 as investigated by transport and magnetic measurements journal August 1989
Gap equation with pairing correlations beyond the mean-field approximation and its equivalence to a Hugenholtz-Pines condition for fermion pairs journal September 2018
Determination of the Superfluid Gap in Atomic Fermi Gases by Quasiparticle Spectroscopy journal October 2008
Resistive transition, magnetoresistance, and anisotropy in La 2 x Sr x CuO 4 single-crystal thin films journal July 1991
Thermodynamics and Phase Diagram of High Temperature Superconductors journal December 2003
Thermodynamics of the BCS-BEC crossover journal February 2007
Direct measurement of the upper critical field in cuprate superconductors journal February 2014
Onset of a Pseudogap Regime in Ultracold Fermi Gases journal September 2011
Condensation of Pairs of Fermionic Atoms near a Feshbach Resonance journal March 2004
Muon Spin Relaxation Studies of Zn-Substitution Effects in High- T c Cuprate Superconductors journal December 1996
Superconductivity in narrow-band systems with local nonretarded attractive interactions journal January 1990
Bounds on the Superconducting Transition Temperature: Applications to Twisted Bilayer Graphene and Cold Atoms journal September 2019
Angle-resolved photoemission studies of the cuprate superconductors journal April 2003
Evidence on the pseudogap and condensate from the electronic specific heat journal January 2001
Extent of Fermi-surface reconstruction in the high-temperature superconductor HgBa 2 CuO 4+ δ journal April 2020
A phenomenological theory of the anomalous pseudogap phase in underdoped cuprates journal December 2011
Colloquium : Theory of intertwined orders in high temperature superconductors journal May 2015
The normal state gap and other strange properties of cuprate superconductors journal March 2000
Theory of ultracold atomic Fermi gases journal October 2008
Observation of pseudogap behaviour in a strongly interacting Fermi gas journal July 2010
High-temperature 63 Cu ( 2 ) nuclear quadrupole and magnetic resonance measurements of YBa 2 Cu 4 O 8 journal July 1997
Electronic duality in strongly correlated matter journal May 2008
Crossover from BCS to Bose superconductivity: Transition temperature and time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory journal November 1993
Carrier-Concentration Dependence of the Pseudogap Ground State of Superconducting Bi 2 Sr 2 x La x CuO 6 + δ Revealed by Cu 63 , 65 -Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Very High Magnetic Fields journal September 2010
Field dependence of the resistive transition in Tl 2 Ba 2 CuO 6 + δ journal May 1994
Evidence of a Precursor Superconducting Phase at Temperatures as High as 180 K in R Ba 2 Cu 3 O 7 δ     ( R = Y , Gd , Eu ) Superconducting Crystals from Infrared Spectroscopy journal January 2011
The pseudogap in high-temperature superconductors: an experimental survey journal January 1999
Specific-Heat Measurement of a Residual Superconducting State in the Normal State of Underdoped Bi 2 Sr 2 x La x CuO 6 + δ Cuprate Superconductors journal August 2009
Thermal conductivity across the phase diagram of cuprates: Low-energy quasiparticles and doping dependence of the superconducting gap journal May 2003
The Physics of Pair-Density Waves: Cuprate Superconductors and Beyond journal March 2020
Pairing Correlations across the Superfluid Phase Transition in the Unitary Fermi Gas journal March 2020
Quantum Mechanical Limitations to Spin Diffusion in the Unitary Fermi Gas journal November 2012
Evaluation of CuO 2 plane hole doping in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 + x single crystals journal May 2006
A detailed de Haas–van Alphen effect study of the overdoped cuprate Tl 2 Ba 2 CuO 6+δ journal October 2010
Observation of Resonance Condensation of Fermionic Atom Pairs journal January 2004
Quantum Theory of Magnetism book January 2009
Doping a Mott insulator: Physics of high-temperature superconductivity journal January 2006
Uniform spin susceptibility and spin-gap phenomenon in the BCS-BEC-crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas journal March 2014
Transport and magnetic properties of Tl 2 Ba 2 CuO 6 + δ showing a δ-dependent gradual transition from an 85-K superconductor to a nonsuperconducting metal journal April 1991
Importance of phase fluctuations in superconductors with small superfluid density journal March 1995
Electron pairing in the pseudogap state revealed by shot noise in copper oxide junctions journal August 2019
Specific heat Evidence on the Normal State Pseudogap journal October 1998
The electronic specific heat of cuprate superconductors journal December 1994
Competing charge, spin, and superconducting orders in underdoped YBa 2 Cu 3 O y journal August 2014
Properties of boson-exchange superconductors journal October 1990
Resonant x-ray scattering study of charge-density wave correlations in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 + x journal August 2014
Emergence of a Pseudogap in the BCS-BEC Crossover journal August 2020
How ‘pairons’ are revealed in the electronic specific heat of cuprates journal January 2021
Crossover from BCS-superconductivity to Bose-condensation journal January 1992
Quantum critical transport in the unitary Fermi gas journal July 2012
Electronic specific heat of overdoped Tl2Ba2CuO6+? in a magnetic field journal November 1996
Superconducting phase coherence in the presence of a pseudogap: Relation to specific heat, tunneling, and vortex core spectroscopies journal April 2001
Pseudogap above T c in a model with d x 2 y 2 pairing journal June 1998
Observation of the Pairing Gap in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas journal August 2004
Optically enhanced coherent transport in YBa2Cu3O6.5 by ultrafast redistribution of interlayer coupling journal May 2014
Bound states, Cooper pairing, and Bose condensation in two dimensions journal February 1989
Single-particle properties and pseudogap effects in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas above T c journal September 2009
Microscopic theory of weak pseudogap behavior in the underdoped cuprate superconductors: General theory and quasiparticle properties journal July 1999
Phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau-like theory for superconductivity in the cuprates journal January 2011
Effect of the pseudogap on the transition temperature in the cuprates and implications for its origin journal March 2014
Quasiparticle mass enhancement approaching optimal doping in a high-Tc superconductor journal March 2015
Specific heat and effects of pairing fluctuations in the BCS-BEC-crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas journal January 2016
Disorder, metal-insulator crossover and phase diagram in high-T c cuprates journal January 2008
Transport Properties of a YB a 2 C u 4 O 8 Crystal under High Pressure journal November 1996
Evolution from BCS superconductivity to Bose condensation: Calculation of the zero-temperature phase coherence length journal June 1996
Magnetic properties and electronic conduction of superconducting La 2 x Sr x CuO 4 journal June 1994
Gapless pairing and the Fermi arc in the cuprates journal November 2007
Universal T-linear resistivity and Planckian dissipation in overdoped cuprates journal November 2018
Disordered-based theory of pseudogap, superconducting gap, and Fermi arc of cuprates journal August 2012
Spectroscopic evidence for a pseudogap in the normal state of underdoped high-Tc superconductors journal July 1996
Electron pockets in the Fermi surface of hole-doped high-Tc superconductors journal November 2007
Planckian dissipation, minimal viscosity and the transport in cuprate strange metals journal January 2019
Y 89 NMR evidence for a fermi-liquid behavior in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 + x journal October 1989
Field-induced superconducting phase of FeSe in the BCS-BEC cross-over journal November 2014
Optical conductivity of granular aluminum films near the Mott metal-to-insulator transition journal June 2019
Magnetic Susceptibility Scaling in La 2 x Sr x Cu O 4 y journal February 1989
The BCS–BEC crossover: From ultra-cold Fermi gases to nuclear systems journal April 2018
Scale-invariant magnetoresistance in a cuprate superconductor journal August 2018
Theory of the pseudogap state of the cuprates journal April 2006
Electronic specific heat of YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 + x from 1.8 to 300 K journal September 1993
Tuning across the BCS-BEC crossover in the multiband superconductor Fe 1+ y Se x Te 1− x : An angle-resolved photoemission study journal April 2017
From quantum matter to high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxides journal February 2015
Theory of Superconductivity journal December 1957
Thermodynamic signatures of quantum criticality in cuprate superconductors journal February 2019
Quenched disorder and vestigial nematicity in the pseudogap regime of the cuprates journal May 2014
Gate-controlled BCS-BEC crossover in a two-dimensional superconductor journal April 2021
Diamagnetism and Cooper pairing above T c in cuprates journal February 2010
Crossover from Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer to Bose-Einstein Condensation and the Unitary Fermi Gas journal March 2014
Tunable strongly coupled superconductivity in magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene journal February 2021
Dependence of the critical temperature in overdoped copper oxides on superfluid density journal August 2016
Destruction of the Fermi surface in underdoped high-Tc superconductors journal March 1998
Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules journal December 2003
Crossover from weak to strong pairing in unconventional superconductors journal June 2011
Two gaps make a high-temperature superconductor? journal May 2008
Towards resolution of the Fermi surface in underdoped high- T c superconductors journal September 2012
Hidden order in the cuprates journal January 2001
Gap energy and long-range order in the boson-fermion model of superconductivity journal October 1989
Universal Quantum Viscosity in a Unitary Fermi Gas journal December 2010
Pseudogap phenomena in ultracold atomic Fermi gases journal October 2014
Universal Correlations between T c and n s m * (Carrier Density over Effective Mass) in High- T c Cuprate Superconductors journal May 1989