Quasiparticle Nernst effect in stripe-ordered cuprates

TL;DR

This paper models the normal-state Nernst effect in stripe-ordered cuprates, showing that Fermi pockets from translational symmetry breaking significantly enhance the Nernst signal and depend on stripe modulation details.

Contribution

It introduces a phenomenological quasiparticle model to explain the Nernst effect in stripe-ordered cuprates, linking Fermi surface features to experimental observations.

Findings

Fermi pockets cause a strong Nernst signal enhancement

Sign of Nernst signal depends on stripe modulation period

Model aligns with recent experimental data

Abstract

Experiments on underdoped cuprate superconductors suggest an intricate relation between the normal-state Nernst effect and stripe order: The Nernst signal appears enhanced near 1/8 hole doping and its onset temperature scales with the stripe-ordering temperature over some range of doping. Here, we employ a phenomenological quasiparticle model to calculate the normal state Nernst signal in the presence of stripe order. We find that Fermi pockets caused by translational symmetry breaking lead to a strongly enhanced Nernst signal with a sign depending on the modulation period of the ordered state and other details of the Fermi surface. This implies differences between antiferromagnetic and charge-only stripes We compare our findings with recent data from Nd-LSCO and YBCO.