Plasmarons in high-temperature cuprate superconductors

Abstract

Metallic systems exhibit plasmons as elementary charge excitations. This fundamental concept was reinforced also in high-temperature cuprate superconductors recently, although cuprates are not only layered systems but also strongly correlated electron systems. Here, we study how such ubiquitous plasmons leave their marks on the electron dispersion in cuprates. In contrast to phonons and magnetic fluctuations, plasmons do not yield a kink in the electron dispersion. Instead, we find that the optical plasmon accounts for an emergent band—plasmarons—in the one-particle excitation spectrum; acoustic-like plasmons typical to a layered system are far less effective. Because of strong electron correlations, the plasmarons are generated by bosonic fluctuations associated with the local constraint, not by the usual charge-density fluctuations. Apart from this physical mechanism, the plasmarons are similar to those discussed in alkali metals, Bi, graphene, monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides, semiconductors, diamond, two-dimensional electron systems, and SrIrO3 films, establishing a concept of plasmarons in metallic systems in general. Plasmarons are realized below (above) the quasiparticle band in electron-doped (hole-doped) cuprates, including a region around (pi, 0) and (0, pi) where the superconducting gap and the pseudogap are most enhanced.