Inter-layer Josephson coupling in stripe-ordered superconducting cuprates

TL;DR

This paper investigates how stripe order in cuprate superconductors suppresses inter-layer Josephson coupling, revealing that Fermi-surface reconstruction significantly reduces inter-layer phase coherence.

Contribution

It provides a mean-field theoretical analysis showing stripe order can drastically diminish inter-layer Josephson coupling in cuprates.

Findings

Stripe order can suppress Josephson coupling by over an order of magnitude.

Fermi-surface reconstruction due to stripe order impacts inter-layer coherence.

Stripe orientation and lattice structure influence superconducting coupling.

Abstract

Motivated by experiments on LBCO-1/8 which suggest that stripe order co-exists with two-dimensional pairing without inter-layer phase coherence over an extended range of temperatures, we determine the inter-layer Josephson coupling in the presence of stripe order. We employ a mean-field description of bond-centered stripes, with a zero-momentum superconducting condensate and alternating stripe directions pinned by the low-temperature tetragonal (LTT) lattice structure. We show that the Fermi-surface reconstruction arising from strong stripe order can suppress the Josephson coupling between adjacent layers by more than an order of magnitude.