@misc{MirarchiGrilliSeiboldetal., author = {Mirarchi, Giovanni and Grilli, Marco and Seibold, G{\"o}tz and Caprara, Sergio}, title = {The Shrinking Fermi Liquid Scenario for Strange-Metal Behavior from Overdamped Optical Phonons}, series = {Condensed Matter}, volume = {9}, journal = {Condensed Matter}, number = {1}, issn = {2410-3896}, doi = {10.3390/condmat9010014}, pages = {1 -- 13}, abstract = {We discuss how the interaction of electrons with an overdamped optical phonon can give rise to a strange-metal behavior over extended temperature and frequency ranges. Although the mode has a finite frequency, an increasing damping shifts spectral weight to progressively lower energies so that despite the ultimate Fermi liquid character of the system at the lowest temperatures and frequencies, the transport and optical properties of the electron system mimic a marginal Fermi liquid behavior. Within this shrinking Fermi liquid scenario, we extensively investigate the electron self-energy in all frequency and temperature ranges, emphasizing similarities and differences with respect to the marginal Fermi liquid scenario.}, language = {en} } @misc{KatsumiFioreUdinaetal., author = {Katsumi, Kota and Fiore, Jacopo and Udina, Mattia and Romero, Ralph and Barbalas, David and Jesudasan, John and Raychaudhuri, Pratap and Seibold, G{\"o}tz and Benfatto, Lara and Armitage, N. P.}, title = {Revealing novel aspects of light-matter coupling by Terahertz Two-Dimensional Coherent Spectroscopy: the case of the amplitude mode in superconductors}, series = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {132}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.256903}, pages = {7}, abstract = {Recently developed terahertz (THz) two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy (2DCS) is a powerful technique to obtain materials information in a fashion qualitatively different from other spectroscopies. Here, we utilized THz 2DCS to investigate the THz nonlinear response of conventional superconductor NbN. Using broadband THz pulses as light sources, we observed a third-order nonlinear signal whose spectral components are peaked at twice the superconducting gap energy 2⁢Δ. With narrow-band THz pulses, a THz nonlinear signal was identified at the driving frequency Ω and exhibited a resonant enhancement at temperature when Ω=2⁢Δ. General theoretical considerations show that such a resonance can arise only from a disorder-activated paramagnetic coupling between the light and the electronic current. This proves that the nonlinear THz response can access processes distinct from the diamagnetic Raman-like density fluctuations, which are believed to dominate the nonlinear response at optical frequencies in metals. Our numerical simulations reveal that, even for a small amount of disorder, the Ω=2⁢Δ resonance is dominated by the superconducting amplitude mode over the entire investigated disorder range. This is in contrast to other resonances, whose amplitude-mode contribution depends on disorder. Our findings demonstrate the unique ability of THz 2DCS to explore collective excitations inaccessible in other spectroscopies.}, language = {en} } @misc{CapraraDiCastroMirarchietal., author = {Caprara, Sergio and Di Castro, Carlo and Mirarchi, Giovanni and Seibold, G{\"o}tz and Grilli, Marco}, title = {The shrinking fermi liquid scenario for cuprates under the scrutiny of optical conductivity measurements}, series = {Materials}, volume = {17}, journal = {Materials}, number = {23}, publisher = {MDPI AG}, issn = {1996-1944}, doi = {10.3390/ma17235849}, abstract = {In a recent paper [B. Michon et al., Nat. Commun. (2023) 14:3033], optical conductivity experiments in cuprate superconductors were shown to display scaling properties consistent with the Marginal Fermi Liquid theory. Here, we argue that the temperature regime studied in these experiments does not allow for distinguishing between Marginal Fermi Liquid and Shrinking Fermi Liquid. In the latter scenario, which we recently proposed and which applies near a quantum critical point, dynamical fluctuations of the order parameter with a short correlation length mediate a nearly isotropic scattering among the quasiparticles over the entire Fermi surface leading to strange metal behavior. If the damping of these nearly local fluctuations increases by decreasing the temperature, the Fermi liquid regime shrinks and the strange metal behavior is extended to the lowest temperatures. This Shrinking Fermi Liquid scenario has many similarities and some differences with respect to the Marginal Fermi Liquid theory. In particular, we show that the approximate scaling properties of the optical conductivity in some high-frequency regimes predicted by the Shrinking Fermi Liquid scenario account for a very good description of the experimental data.}, language = {en} } @misc{FioreSellatiGabrieleetal., author = {Fiore, Jacopo and Sellati, Niccol{\`o} and Gabriele, Francesco and Castellani, Claudio and Seibold, G{\"o}tz and Udina, Mattia and Benfatto, Lara}, title = {Investigating Josephson plasmons in layered cuprates via nonlinear terahertz spectroscopy}, series = {Physical Review B}, volume = {110}, journal = {Physical Review B}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.110.L060504}, pages = {1 -- 6}, abstract = {Josephson plasmons in layered superconductors represent a natural source of optical nonlinearity, thanks to their intrinsically anharmonic nature. Here we derive the selection rules behind nonlinear plasmonics showing its dependence on plasmonic branches hidden to other spectroscopies, such as RIXS. We benchmark our results for the case of layered cuprates, showing how in a layered system the combined effect of plasmon dispersion and light polarization can move the resonance of the bilayer system away from the plasma edge measured in linear spectroscopy. Our results demonstrate the dependence of the nonlinear THz response on the convoluted plasmon dispersion in a momentum region complementary to RIXS, and offer a possible perspective for the generation of THz pulses by artificially designed Josephson heterostructures.}, language = {en} } @misc{MirarchiArpaiaWahlbergetal., author = {Mirarchi, Giovanni and Arpaia, Riccardo and Wahlberg, Eric and Bauch, Thilo and Kalaboukhov, Alexei and Caprara, Sergio and Di Castro, Carlo and Grilli, Marco and Lombardi, Floriana and Seibold, G{\"o}tz}, title = {Tuning the ground state of cuprate superconducting thin films by nanofaceted substrates}, series = {Communications Materials}, journal = {Communications Materials}, number = {5}, doi = {10.1038/s43246-024-00582-5}, pages = {1 -- 6}, abstract = {Anisotropic transport properties have been assessed in a number of cuprate superconductors, providing evidence for a nematic state. We have recently shown that in ultra-thin YBa2Cu3O7-δ films, where nematicity is induced via strain engineering, there is a suppression of charge density wave scattering along the orthorhombic a-axis and a concomitant enhancement of strange metal behavior along the b-axis. Here we develop a microscopic model, that is based on the strong interaction between the substrate facets and the thin film, to account for the unconventional phenomenology. Based on the atomic force microscopy imaging of the substrates' surface, the model is able to predict the absence (presence) of nematicity and the resulting transport properties in films grown on SrTiO3 (MgO) substrates. Our result paves the way to new tuning capabilities of the ground state of high-temperature superconductors by substrate engineering.}, language = {en} } @misc{LorenzanaSeibold, author = {Lorenzana, Jos{\´e} and Seibold, G{\"o}tz}, title = {Undamped higgs modes in strongly interacting superconductors}, series = {Condens Matter}, volume = {9}, journal = {Condens Matter}, number = {4}, doi = {10.3390/condmat9040038}, pages = {1 -- 12}, abstract = {In superconductors, gauge 𝑈(1) symmetry is spontaneously broken. According to Goldstone's theorem, this breaking of a continuous symmetry establishes the existence of the Bogoliubov phase mode while the gauge-invariant response also includes the amplitude fluctuations of the order parameter. The latter, which are also termed 'Higgs' modes in analogy with the standard model, appear at the energy of the spectral gap 2Δ, when the superconducting ground state is evaluated within the weak-coupling BCS theory, and, therefore, are damped. Previously, we have shown that, within the time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation (TDGA), Higgs modes appear inside the gap with a finite binding energy relative to the quasiparticle continuum. Here, we show that the binding energy of the Higgs mode becomes exponentially small in the weak-coupling limit converging to the BCS solution. On the other hand, well-defined undamped amplitude modes exist in strongly coupled superconductors when the interaction energy becomes of the order of the bandwidth.}, language = {en} } @misc{LorenzanaSeibold, author = {Lorenzana, Jose and Seibold, G{\"o}tz}, title = {Long-Lived Higgs Modes in Strongly Correlated Condensates}, series = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {132}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {2}, issn = {0031-9007}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.026501}, pages = {026501-1 -- 026501-8}, abstract = {We investigate order parameter fluctuations in the Hubbard model within a time-dependent Gutzwiller approach. While in the weak coupling limit we find that the amplitude fluctuations are short-lived due to a degeneracy with the energy of the edge of the quasiparticle continua (and in agreement with Hartree-Fock+RPA theory), these are shifted below the edge upon increasing the interaction. Our calculations therefore predict undamped amplitude (Higgs) oscillations of the order parameter in strongly coupled superconductors, cold atomic fermion condensates, and strongly interacting charge- and spin-density wave systems. We propose an experimental realization for the detection of the spin-type Higgs mode in undoped cuprates and related materials where, due to the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction, it can couple to an out-of-plane ferromagnetic excitation that is visible via the Faraday effect.}, language = {en} }