Vortices and charge order in high-T_c superconductors

TL;DR

This paper models vortex states in high-T_c cuprate superconductors, revealing that magnetic fields induce static charge order within vortex cores, with satellite peaks in diffraction patterns that grow linearly with field strength.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlinear sigma-model approach to describe vortex core charge order and predicts specific satellite peak behaviors observed experimentally.

Findings

Vortex cores contain static charge order with elliptic shape.

Satellite peaks in diffraction patterns are aligned along reciprocal lattice axes.

Satellite intensity increases linearly with magnetic field.

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the vortex state of the cuprate high-temperature superconductors in the presence of magnetic fields. Assuming the recently derived nonlinear $\sigma$-model for fluctuations in the pseudogap phase, we find that the vortex cores consist of two crossed regions of elliptic shape, in which a static charge order emerges. Charge density wave order manifests itself as satellites to the ordinary Bragg peaks directed along the axes of the reciprocal copper lattice. Quadrupole density wave (bond order) satellites, if seen, are predicted to be along the diagonals. The intensity of the satellites should grow linearly with the magnetic field, in agreement with the result of recent experiments.