A multi-component Fermi surface in the vortex state of an underdoped high-Tc superconductor

TL;DR

This study uses quantum oscillation measurements to reveal a complex multi-component Fermi surface in an underdoped high-Tc superconductor, providing insights into its magnetic order and electronic structure.

Contribution

It presents evidence for multiple Fermi surface pockets, including a larger, heavier one, in an underdoped cuprate superconductor, suggesting a density-wave order scenario.

Findings

Detection of multiple Fermi surface pockets via quantum oscillations.

Identification of a larger, heavier carrier pocket dominating thermodynamics.

Constraints on magnetic order wavevector and carrier momentum space location.

Abstract

In order to understand the origin of superconductivity, it is crucial to ascertain the nature and origin of the primary carriers available to participate in pairing. Recent quantum oscillation experiments on high Tc cuprate superconductors have revealed the existence of a Fermi surface akin to normal metals, comprising fermionic carriers that undergo orbital quantization. However, the unexpectedly small size of the observed carrier pocket leaves open a variety of possibilities as to the existence or form of any underlying magnetic order, and its relation to d-wave superconductivity. Here we present quantum oscillations in the magnetisation (the de Haas-van Alphen or dHvA effect) observed in superconducting YBa2Cu3O6.51 that reveal more than one carrier pocket. In particular, we find evidence for the existence of a much larger pocket of heavier mass carriers playing a thermodynamically dominant role in this hole-doped superconductor. Importantly, characteristics of the multiple pockets within this more complete Fermi surface impose constraints on the wavevector of any underlying order and the location of the carriers in momentum space. These constraints enable us to construct a possible density-wave scenario with spiral or related modulated magnetic order, consistent with experimental observations.