Electromagnetic response of cuprate superconductors with coexisting electronic nematicity

ABSTRACT

The electronically nematic order has emerged as a key feature of cuprate superconductors, however, its correlation with the fundamental properties such as the electromagnetic response remains unclear. Here the nematic-order state strength dependence of the electromagnetic response in cuprate superconductors is investigated within the framework of the kinetic-energy-driven superconductivity. It is shown that a significant anisotropy of the electromagnetic response is caused by the electronic nematicity. In particular, in addition to the pure d-wave component of the superconducting gap, the pure s-wave component of the superconducting gap is generated by the electronic nematicity, therefore there is a coexistence and competition of the d-wave component and the s-wave component. This coexistence and competition leads to that the maximal condensation energy appears at around the optimal strength of the electronic nematicity, and then decreases in both the weak and strong strength regions, which in turn induces the enhancement of superconductivity, and gives rise to the dome-like shape of the nematic-order state strength dependence of the superfluid density.

KEYWORDS:

• Meissner effect
• electromagnetic response
• electronic nematicity
• rotation symmetry-breaking
• cuprate superconductor

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr Yiqun Liu and Dr Minghuan Zeng for the helpful discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

ZC, XM, and SF are supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2021YFA1401803], and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [grant numbers 11974051 and 12274036]. HG is supported by NSFC [gant numbers 11774019 and 12074022], and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and HPC resources at Beihang University.