A microscopic modeling of phonon dynamics and charge response in NdCuO

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic model for phonon and charge dynamics in NdCuO, capturing doping-dependent behaviors and electron-hole asymmetry, and compares theoretical phonon dispersions with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a modified modeling approach for n-doped cuprates that incorporates orbital selectivity and electron-hole asymmetry, extending previous p-doped models.

Findings

Calculated phonon dispersion curves match experimental data.

Identified anticrossing of oxygen bond-stretching modes in n-doped NdCuO.

Revealed charge redistributions linked to nonlocal electron-phonon interactions.

Abstract

A description of phonon dynamics and charge response of the $n$-doped high-temperature superconductor (HTSC) NdCuO is presented based upon a microscopic modeling of the electronic density response. This is accomplished starting from the insulating state via the underdoped strange metallic to the more conventional metallic state by consecutive orbital selective incompressibility-compressibility transitions in terms of strict sum rules for the charge response. The approach proposed in this work for the $n$-doped HTSC's modifies the modeling recently applied to the $p$-doped compounds and expresses an electron-hole asymmetry introduced by doping. A qualitative physical picture consistent with our modeling of the electronic state in the cuprates is given in which a sufficiently broad set of orbital degrees of freedom, i.e. Cu3d/$4s$ and O$2p$ is essential. Within the framework of linear response theory we calculate full phonon dispersion curves in the different phases. In particular, the strongly doping dependent anomalous high-frequency oxygen bond-stretching modes (OBSM) found experimentally in the $p$-doped HTSC's and also recently for $n$-doped Nd$_{1.85}$Ce$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4}$ are investigated and compared with experimental results from inelastic neutron scattering and inelastic x-ray scattering, respectively. We calculate an anticrossing scenario for the OBSM in $n$-doped NdCuO which is absent in the case of $p$-doped LaCuO and relate it to the different crystal structure. Phonon-induced electronic charge redistributions of the anomalous OBSM due to nonlocal electron-phonon interaction effects of charge-fluctuation type giving reason to dynamic stripes are also studied.