From Friedel oscillations and Kondo effect to the pseudogap in cuprates

Abstract

One of the great achievements performed by Jacques Friedel in France has been to promote experimental activities on the electronic properties in condensed matter physics, which has led him, among others, to be an active promoter of the up-rise of the "Laboratoire de Physique des Solides" (LPS). A selective presentation of some of the work achieved in my Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) group allows me to underline the importance of the initial choices done by J. Friedel for the LPS. I give here an updated review of the work done on Kondo effect in the 1970's which has allowed me to enlighten the real interest of the NMR probe as a local experimental technique to visualize the perturbation brought by impurities in normal metals. In a second part I summarize the early NMR experiments done in the high Tc cuprates which have given evidence for the existence of strong electronic correlations and established the occurrence of the "pseudogap", on which I have initially had some exchanges with J. Friedel. The pseudogap, occurring below a temperature T*, has during the last twenty years raised endless discussions about the incidence of correlations on superconductivity. Many researchers are still advocating today that the pseudogap is due to the existence of preformed pairs above Tc. Its robustness to impurities and disorder that we evidenced from the early days rather suggested that it results from a competing order of the correlated state. This is apparently better accepted nowadays, although various distinct ordered states detected below T* are not yet understood. I also underline the large contrast between the scientific behaviours which prevailed between these two periods of scientific activity. I suggest that these changes might have a negative incidence, in my opinion, on the research and education system, at least in our field of science.

23 pages, 13 figures. Article dedicated to the 90th anniversary of J. Friedel

References in corpus (6)

• Friedel oscillations and the Kondo screening cloud
• Disorder, Metal-Insulator crossover and Phase diagram in high-Tc cuprates
• NMR study of the Mott transitions to superconductivity in the two Cs_3C_60 phases
• Superconducting Fluctuations, Pseudogap and Phase Diagram in Cuprates
• Total suppression of superconductivity by high magnetic fields in YBa2 Cu3O6.6
• Na ordering imprints a metallic kagome lattice onto the Co planes of Na2/3CoO2

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Persistence of superconducting condensate far above the critical temperature in YBa${}_2$(Cu,Zn)${}_3$O${}_y$ revealed by $c$-axis optical conductivity measurements for several Zn concentrations and carrier doping levels
• Dynamic Superconductivity Responses in Photo-excited Optical Conductivity and Nernst Effect
• Robust Charge-Density Wave Correlations in Optimally-Doped YBa2Cu3Oy
• What do we learn from impurities and disorder in High Tc cuprates?