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Quantum oscillations from Fermi arcs

Nature Physics volume 6, pages 44–49 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

When a metal is subjected to a strong magnetic field B, nearly all measurable quantities show oscillations periodic in 1/B. Such quantum oscillations represent a canonical probe of the defining aspect of a metal, its Fermi surface. Recent breakthrough experiments demonstrating the existence of unambiguous quantum oscillations in a cuprate superconductor, YBa2Cu3O6.51, contradict the well-established result of many angle resolved photoemission studies, which consistently indicate ‘Fermi arcs’—truncated segments of a Fermi surface—in the normal state of the cuprates. In this study, with the goal of reconciling the above disagreement, we introduce a mechanism for quantum oscillations that requires only finite segments of a Fermi surface. We show that oscillations periodic in 1/B can occur if the Fermi surface segments are terminated by a pairing gap and present arguments that these oscillations are in fact occurring in the cuprates.

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Figure 1: The Fermi-arc metal (FAM).
Figure 2: Semiclassical analysis.
Figure 3: Semiclassical trajectories.
Figure 4: Exact diagonalization of the lattice model.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge discussions with D. Bonn, W. Hardy, B. Seradjeh, L. Taillefer, Z. Tešanović, O. Vafek, M. Vojta and N.-C. Yeh. The work was supported in part by NSERC, CIfAR (M.F.), DFG through SFB 608 (H.W.), the Packard Foundation and the Research Corporation (G.R.).

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Author notes

  1. T. Pereg-Barnea and H. Weber: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, MC114-36, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

    T. Pereg-Barnea & G. Refael

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1

    H. Weber & M. Franz

  3. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Str. 77, 50937 Köln, Germany

    H. Weber

Authors
  1. T. Pereg-Barnea
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Contributions

T.P.B. and H.W. contributed equally to this work. T.P.B. carried out the semiclassical analysis, H.W. carried out the lattice computations and G.R. and M.F. advised.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. Pereg-Barnea.

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Pereg-Barnea, T., Weber, H., Refael, G. et al. Quantum oscillations from Fermi arcs. Nature Phys 6, 44–49 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1431

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