Wide applicability of high $T_c$ pairing originating from coexisting wide and incipient narrow bands in quasi one dimension

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that high-temperature superconductivity can be achieved in quasi-one-dimensional systems with coexisting wide and incipient narrow bands, due to interband scattering enhanced by flat band effects and large density of states.

Contribution

It reveals the generality of a high $T_c$ pairing mechanism originating from coexisting wide and narrow bands in various quasi-one-dimensional lattice models.

Findings

Superconductivity is enhanced when the Fermi level is near a flat or incipient narrow band.

Interband scattering processes significantly contribute to pairing in these systems.

The mechanism remains effective even when the narrow band has finite width.

Abstract

We study superconductivity in the Hubbard model on various quasi-one-dimensional lattices with coexisting wide and narrow bands originating from multiple sites within a unit cell, where each site corresponds to a single orbital. The systems studied are the 2-leg and 3-leg ladders, the diamond chain, and the criss-cross ladder. These one-dimensional lattices are weakly coupled to form two-dimensional (quasi-one-dimensional) ones, and the fluctuation exchange approximation is adopted to study spin-fluctuation-mediated superconductivity. When one of the bands is perfectly flat, and the Fermi level, intersecting the wide band, is placed in the vicinity of the flat band, superconductivity arising from the interband scattering processes is found to be strongly enhanced owing to the combination of the light electron mass of the wide band and the strong pairing interaction due to the large density of states of the flat band. Even when the narrow band has finite band width, the pairing mechanism still works since the edge of the narrow band, due to its large density of states, plays the role of the flat band. The results indicate the generality of the high $T_c$ pairing mechanism due to coexisting wide and "incipient" narrow bands in quasi-one-dimensional systems.