TY - GEN A1 - Caprara, Sergio A1 - Di Castro, Carlo A1 - Mirarchi, Giovanni A1 - Seibold, Götz A1 - Grilli, Marco T1 - Dissipation-driven strange metal behavior T2 - Communications Physics N2 - Anomalous metallic properties are often observed in the proximity of quantum critical points, with violation of the Fermi Liquid paradigm. We propose a scenario where, near the quantum critical point, dynamical fluctuations of the order parameter with finite correlation length mediate a nearly isotropic scattering among the quasiparticles over the entire Fermi surface. This scattering produces a strange metallic behavior, which is extended to the lowest temperatures by an increase of the damping of the fluctuations. We phenomenologically identify one single parameter ruling this increasing damping when the temperature decreases, accounting for both the linear-in-temperature resistivity and the seemingly divergent specific heat observed, e.g., in high-temperature superconducting cuprates and some heavy-fermion metals. KW - Electronic properties and materials KW - Superconducting properties and materials Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-021-00786-y U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00786-y SN - 2399-3650 IS - 5 SP - 1 EP - 7 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mirarchi, Giovanni A1 - Seibold, Götz A1 - Di Castro, Carlo A1 - Grilli, Marco A1 - Caprara, Sergio T1 - The Strange-Metal Behavior of Cuprates T2 - Condensed Matter N2 - Recent resonant X-ray scattering experiments on cuprates allowed to identify a new kind of collective excitations, known as charge density fluctuations, which have finite characteristic wave vector, short correlation length and small characteristic energy. It was then shown that these fluctuations provide a microscopic scattering mechanism that accounts for the anomalous transport properties of cuprates in the so-called strange-metal phase and are a source of anomalies in the specific heat. In this work, we retrace the main steps that led us to attributing a central role to charge density fluctuations in the strange-metal phase of cuprates, discuss the state of the art on the issue and provide an in-depth analysis of the contribution of charge density fluctuations to the specific heat. KW - high-temperature superconductors KW - cuprates KW - charge density fluctuations KW - strange metal KW - dynamical quantum criticality Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3896/7/1/29/htm U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/condmat7010029 SN - 2410-3896 VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 17 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mirarchi, Giovanni A1 - Grilli, Marco A1 - Seibold, Götz A1 - Caprara, Sergio T1 - The Shrinking Fermi Liquid Scenario for Strange-Metal Behavior from Overdamped Optical Phonons T2 - Condensed Matter N2 - 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. KW - strange-metal behavior KW - marginal Fermi liquid KW - high-temperature cuprate superconductors Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3896/9/1/14 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/condmat9010014 SN - 2410-3896 VL - 9 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 13 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Caprara, Sergio A1 - Di Castro, Carlo A1 - Mirarchi, Giovanni A1 - Seibold, Götz A1 - Grilli, Marco T1 - The shrinking fermi liquid scenario for cuprates under the scrutiny of optical conductivity measurements T2 - Materials N2 - 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. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17235849 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 17 IS - 23 PB - MDPI AG ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mirarchi, Giovanni A1 - Arpaia, Riccardo A1 - Wahlberg, Eric A1 - Bauch, Thilo A1 - Kalaboukhov, Alexei A1 - Caprara, Sergio A1 - Di Castro, Carlo A1 - Grilli, Marco A1 - Lombardi, Floriana A1 - Seibold, Götz T1 - Tuning the ground state of cuprate superconducting thin films by nanofaceted substrates T2 - Communications Materials N2 - 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. KW - Electronic properties and materials KW - Surfaces, interfaces and thin films Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s43246-024-00582-5?utm_source=rct_congratemailt&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=oa_20240809&utm_content=10.1038/s43246-024-00582-5 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-024-00582-5 IS - 5 SP - 1 EP - 6 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Grilli, Marco A1 - Di Castro, Carlo A1 - Mirarchi, Giovanni A1 - Seibold, Götz A1 - Caprara, Sergio T1 - Dissipative Quantum Criticality as a Source of Strange Metal Behavior T2 - Symmetry N2 - The strange metal behavior, usually characterized by a linear-in-temperature (T) resistivity, is a still unsolved mystery in solid-state physics. It is often associated with the proximity to a quantum critical point (a second order transition at temperature T=0, leading to a broken symmetry phase) focusing on the related divergent order parameter correlation length. Here, we propose a paradigmatic shift, focusing on a divergent characteristic time scale due to a divergent dissipation acting on the fluctuating critical modes while their correlation length stays finite. To achieve a divergent dissipation, we propose a mechanism based on the coupling between a local order parameter fluctuation and electron density diffusive modes that accounts both for the linear-in-T resistivity and for the logarithmic specific heat versus temperature ratio CV/T∼log(1/T), down to low temperatures. KW - strange metal behavior KW - cuprates KW - charge density fluctuations KW - diffusive modes Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15030569 SN - 2073-8994 VL - 15 IS - 3 ER -