Complementary Pair Density Wave and d-wave Checkerboard Order in High Temperature Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a theoretical connection between two types of electronic order in high-temperature superconductors, showing how local pair localization can induce both orders and explain experimental checkerboard patterns.

Contribution

It reveals a complementary relationship between d-wave checkerboard order and pair density wave order, providing a unified explanation for pseudogap phenomena in cuprates.

Findings

Simultaneous emergence of DWCB and PDW orders from local pair localization

Explanation of checkerboard modulation observed in STM experiments

Insight into the pseudogap state's nodal-antinodal dichotomy

Abstract

The competing orders in the particle-particle (P-P) channel and the particle-hole (P-H) channel have been proposed separately to explain the pseudogap physics in cuprates. By solving the Bogoliubov-deGennes equation self-consistently, we show that there is a general complementary connection between the d-wave checkerboard order (DWCB) in the particle-hole (P-H) channel and the pair density wave order (PDW) in the particle-particle (P-P) channel. A small pair density localization generates DWCB and PDW orders simultaneously. The result suggests that suppressing superconductivity locally or globally through phase fluctuation should induce both orders in underdoped cuprates. The presence of both DWCB and PDW orders with $4a \times 4a$ periodicity can explain the checkerboard modulation observed in FT-STS from STM and the puzzling dichotomy between the nodal and antinodal regions as well as the characteristic features such as non-dispersive Fermi arc in the pseudogap state.