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Charge-density-wave origin of cuprate checkerboard visualized by scanning tunnelling microscopy

2008; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 4; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/nphys1021

1745-2481

W. D. Wise, Michael Boyer, Kamalesh Chatterjee, Takeshi Kondo, Tsunehiro Takeuchi, Hiroshi Ikuta, Yayu Wang, Eric Hudson,

Quantum and electron transport phenomena

The checkerboard pattern observed in high-temperature superconductors by scanning tunnelling microscopy is widespread, but what does it mean? And what does it say about the mysterious 'pseudogap'? One of the main challenges in understanding high-Tc superconductivity is to disentangle the rich variety of states of matter that may coexist, cooperate or compete with d-wave superconductivity. At centre stage is the pseudogap phase, which occupies a large portion of the cuprate phase diagram surrounding the superconducting dome1. Using scanning tunnelling microscopy, we find that a static, non-dispersive, 'checkerboard'-like electronic modulation exists in a broad regime of the cuprate phase diagram and exhibits strong doping dependence. The continuous increase of checkerboard periodicity with hole density strongly suggests that the checkerboard originates from charge-density-wave formation in the antinodal region of the cuprate Fermi surface. These results reveal a coherent picture for static electronic orderings in the cuprates and shed important new light on the nature of the pseudogap phase.