Enhancement of superconductivity by electronic nematicity in cuprate superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electronic nematicity influences superconductivity in cuprates, revealing that nematic order enhances Tc, induces Fermi surface anisotropy, and breaks rotational and translational symmetries, with a dome-shaped dependence of Tc on nematic strength.

Contribution

It demonstrates that electronic nematicity optimally enhances superconductivity and causes electronic structure anisotropy, providing a detailed theoretical analysis of these effects in cuprate superconductors.

Findings

Nematic order enhances Tc with a dome-like dependence.

Nematicity induces Fermi surface anisotropy and Fermi arcs.

Broken symmetries lead to inequivalent electronic structures along kx and ky.

Abstract

The cuprate superconductors are characterized by numerous ordering tendencies, with the nematic order being the most distinct form of order. Here the intertwinement of the electronic nematicity with superconductivity in cuprate superconductors is studied based on the kinetic-energy-driven superconductivity. It is shown that the optimized Tc takes a dome-like shape with the weak and strong strength regions on each side of the optimal strength of the electronic nematicity, where the optimized Tc reaches its maximum. This dome-like shape nematic-order strength dependence of Tc indicates that the electronic nematicity enhances superconductivity. Moreover, this nematic order induces the anisotropy of the electron Fermi surface (EFS), where although the original EFS with the four-fold rotation symmetry is broken up into that with a residual two-fold rotation symmetry, this EFS with the two-fold rotation symmetry still is truncated to form the Fermi arcs with the most spectral weight that locates at the tips of the Fermi arcs. Concomitantly, these tips of the Fermi arcs connected by the wave vectors ${\bf q}_{i}$ construct an octet scattering model, however, the partial wave vectors and their respective symmetry-corresponding partners occur with unequal amplitudes, leading to these ordered states being broken both rotation and translation symmetries. As a natural consequence, the electronic structure is inequivalent between the $k_{x}$ and $k_{y}$ directions. These anisotropic features of the electronic structure are also confirmed via the result of the autocorrelation of the single-particle excitation spectra, where the breaking of the rotation symmetry is verified by the inequivalence on the average of the electronic structure at the two Bragg scattering sites. Furthermore, the strong energy dependence of the order parameter of the electronic nematicity is also discussed.