Enhanced superconductivity via layer differentiation in trilayer Hubbard model

TL;DR

This study uses quantum Monte Carlo simulations to show that layer differentiation in trilayer Hubbard models can significantly enhance superconductivity, especially with imbalanced hole doping, offering insights into high-$T_c$ cuprates.

Contribution

It demonstrates that layer differentiation and imbalanced doping in trilayer Hubbard models can boost superconducting transition temperatures, revealing mechanisms behind high-$T_c$ in multilayer cuprates.

Findings

Outer layers remain metallic while inner layer transitions to superconducting state.

Highest $T_c$ is achieved with imbalanced hole doping between layers.

Evidence of $d$-wave superconductivity originating solely in the inner layer.

Abstract

Motivated by the highest superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$) in multilayer cuprates,we investigated the trilayer Hubbard model by adopting the large-scale dynamical cluster quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Focusing on the systems with hole dopings within the two outer layers (OL) higher than the inner layer (IL), which is believed to be relevant to the realistic multilayer cuprates, our exploration discovered that the IL and OL manifest strong differentiation in a wide range of hole doping combinations. Specifically, the OLs remain metallic while the IL shows a distinct transition from the pseudogap to superconducting state. More importantly, the highest $T_c$ of the composite trilayer system can be largely enhanced compared to the single layer model and the imbalanced hole dopings between IL and OL are generically beneficial for global SC. We further provide strong numerical evidence on the possibility of $d$-wave superconductivity solely hosted in the IL. Our investigation provides new insight into the origin of highest $T_c$ in multilayer cuprates.