Symmetry of the charge density wave in cuprates

TL;DR

This paper develops a Ginzburg-Landau model for charge density waves in cuprates, revealing how interaction parameters influence the transition between stripe and checkerboard patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed GL functional for cuprate CDWs and demonstrates how higher-order terms can induce symmetry transitions in the charge order pattern.

Findings

Stripe CDW is favored in simplest models.

Third-order terms can cause a transition to checkerboard patterns.

Interaction strength and range control the symmetry of the CDW.

Abstract

We derive and analyze an effective Ginzburg-Landau (GL) functional for a charge density wave (CDW) for a model of electrons on a tight binding square lattice with density-density interactions. We show, using realistic electronic dispersions for the cuprates, that for the simplest GL theory, the preferred symmetry is of the uni-directional (stripe) type, but upon inclusion of third-order terms, the CDW may exhibit a transition from a uni-directional to a checkerboard pattern depending on the strength and range of the interaction.