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Colossal transverse magnetoresistance due to nematic superconducting phase fluctuations in a copper oxide

Journal Article · · PNAS Nexus
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Univ. of Gothenburg (Sweden)
  2. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Westlake Univ., Hangzhou (China)
  3. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  4. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
  5. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
Electronic anisotropy (“nematicity”) has been detected in cuprate superconductors by various experimental techniques. Using angle-resolved transverse resistance (ARTR) measurements, a very sensitive and background-free technique that can detect 0.5% anisotropy in transport, we have observed it also in La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) for 0.02 ≤ x ≤ 0.25. A central enigma in LSCO is the rotation of the nematic director (orientation of the largest longitudinal resistance) with temperature; this has not been seen before in any material. Here, we address this puzzle by measuring the angle-resolved transverse magnetoresistance (ARTMR) in LSCO. We report the discovery of colossal transverse magnetoresistance (CTMR)—an order-of-magnitude drop in the transverse resistivity in the magnetic field of 6 T. We show that the apparent rotation of the nematic director is caused by anisotropic superconducting fluctuations, which are not aligned with the normal electron fluid, consistent with coexisting bond-aligned and diagonal nematic orders. We quantify this by modeling the (magneto-)conductivity as a sum of normal (Drude) and paraconducting (Aslamazov–Larkin) channels but extended to contain anisotropic Drude and Cooper-pair effective mass tensors. Strikingly, the anisotropy of Cooper-pair stiffness is much larger than that of the normal electrons. It grows dramatically on the underdoped side, where the fluctuations become quasi-one-dimensional. Our analysis is general rather than model dependent. Still, we discuss some candidate microscopic models, including coupled strongly-correlated ladders where the transverse (interladder) phase stiffness is low compared with the longitudinal intraladder stiffness, as well as the anisotropic superconducting fluctuations expected close to the transition to a pair-density wave state.
Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
2000461
Report Number(s):
BNL--224802-2023-JAAM
Journal Information:
PNAS Nexus, Journal Name: PNAS Nexus Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 2; ISSN 2752-6542
Publisher:
Oxford University PressCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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