Dynamical electronic nematicity from Mott physics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that strong electronic anisotropies in correlated materials can arise from Mott physics without static stripe order, especially in the underdoped regime of high-temperature superconductors.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamical mean-field theory approach to show how Mott physics induces electronic nematicity without static stripe order.

Findings

Large anisotropies occur near the Mott transition.

Anisotropy diminishes at high frequencies.

Maximum anisotropy is in the underdoped regime.

Abstract

Very large anisotropies in transport quantities have been observed in the presence of very small in-plane structural anisotropy in many strongly correlated electron materials. By studying the two-dimensional Hubbard model with dynamical-mean-field theory for clusters, we show that such large anisotropies can be induced without static stripe order if the interaction is large enough to yield a Mott transition. Anisotropy decreases at large frequency. The maximum effect on conductivity anisotropy occurs in the underdoped regime, as observed in high temperature superconductors.