Phase pinning and interlayer effects on competing orders in cuprates

TL;DR

This paper investigates how interlayer coupling and c-axis bond-density-wave order influence the competition with superconductivity in cuprates, motivated by experimental evidence of transient superconducting states upon optical excitation.

Contribution

It introduces a model of randomly oriented charge domains to analyze the impact of interlayer effects on competing orders in cuprates.

Findings

Interlayer coupling significantly affects the competition between charge order and superconductivity.

Broad c-axis momentum peaks are consistent with a model of randomly oriented charge domains.

Interlayer effects can modulate the stability of different ordered states.

Abstract

Over the past few years, several exciting experiments in the cuprates have seen evidence of a transient superconducting state upon optical excitation polarized along the c-axis [R. Mankowsky et al., Nature 516, 71 (2014)]. The competition between d-form-factor order and superconductivity in these materials has been proposed as an important factor in the observed enhancement of superconductivity. Central to this effect is the structure of the bond-density-wave along the c-axis, in particular, the $c$-axis component of the ordering vector $Q_z$. Motivated by the fact that the bond-density-wave order empirically shows a broad peak in c-axis momentum, we consider a model of randomly oriented charge ordering domains and study how interlayer coupling affects the competition of this order with superconductivity.