Fermi Surface Reconstruction in the Electron-doped Cuprate Pr(2-x)CexCuO4

TL;DR

This study investigates the Fermi Surface Reconstruction in electron-doped cuprate PCCO through resistivity, Hall, and magnetoresistance measurements, revealing a quantum phase transition and similarities with hole-doped cuprates.

Contribution

It provides comprehensive experimental data on PCCO's FSR, highlighting the doping-dependent electronic changes and their relation to quantum phase transitions, with implications for understanding cuprate superconductors.

Findings

Large change in Hall number at FSR point in PCCO

Resistivity upturn influenced by carrier decrease and scattering rate change

Spin magnetoresistance drops to zero near the critical point

Abstract

We report extensive resistivity, Hall, and magnetoresistance measurements on thin films of the electron-doped cuprate \PCCO~(PCCO), as a function of doping, temperature and magnetic field. The doping dependence of the resistivity and Hall number at low temperatures are characteristic of a system near a quantum phase transition or a Fermi Surface Reconstruction (FSR) point. The spin magnetoresistance drops to zero near the critical point. The data presented in this paper were compiled during the 2004-2007 period but were never published in this comprehensive form. Because of the recent interest in very similar results now being found in the normal state of hole-doped cuprates, we believe the results of our older, mostly unpublished, work will be of interest to the present community of cuprate researchers. In particular, Fig.11 shows the large change in Hall number at the FSR point in \PCCO, similar to that found recently in YBCO and LSCO (See ref[1] and [2]). Also, Fig.6 illustrates how the resistivity upturn is affected by the FSR. The cause of the resistivity upturn has been attributed to the loss of carriers at doping below the FSR in the hole-doped cuprates (see Ref. 3), however, this scenario does not explain the data for PCCO. The upturn in n-doped cuprates is more-likely due to a combination of carrier decrease and a change in the scattering rate below the FSR (see also Ref. 4). The change in spin scattering below the FSR is illustrated by Fig.18 in this paper. Chen et al. [5] have developed a model based on spin scattering that is able to explain qualitatively the resistivity upturn in all the cuprates.