Porteur de projet :

Cyril Proust ()
LNCMI (Fermions fortement corrélés)

Laboratoires / Groupes / Equipes partenaires :

LPT (Fermions fortement corrélés)

Années (début–fin) : 2013 - 2016

Abstract

Understanding the normal state of cuprate high temperature superconductors remains a major challenge to condensed-matter physics. Very recently, a new impetus has been given to the field: quantum oscillations, nuclear-magnetic-resonance and sound velocity experiments on the purest underdoped cuprate YBa ₂ Cu ₃ O _y in magnetic fields strong enough to significantly suppress superconductivity have revealed close competition between superconductivity and a charge order. These experiments have received great worldwide attention owing to their potential impact on our understanding of high temperature superconductivity. We propose to develop this success further by combining a new set of innovative experiments versus doping at LNCMI Toulouse, in close collaboration with theorists of LPT Toulouse to perform symmetry analysis and perform a phenomenological theory and, eventually, a microscopic theory.

The general objective of the project is to bring answers to some of the most fundamental questions regarding copper-oxide superconductors, and more specifically today’s central issues such as the role of charge order and the nature of the pseudogap phase: How do we understand the field-induced charge order and its competition with superconductivity? Are incipient charge correlations restricted to a narrow doping range around p=1/8 or do they exist in the whole phase diagram? How do we understand the pseudogap, in particular does it have anything to do with fluctuating charge density wave? These questions have been at the heart of the high T _c mystery for a number of years, and our recent results have made them even more pressing. Our project involves competition at a high international level and promises to open tremendous new opportunities for progress in the field.