Kerr effect as evidence of gyrotropic order in the cuprates

Abstract

The Kerr effect can arise in a time-reversal invariant dissipative medium that is "gyrotropic", i.e. one that breaks inversion ($\mathcal{I}$) and all mirror symmetries. Examples of such systems include electron analogs of cholesteric liquid crystals, and their descendants, such as systems with chiral charge ordering. We present arguments that the striking Kerr onset seen in the pseudogap phase of a large number of cuprate high temperature superconductors is evidence of chiral charge ordering. We discuss additional experimental consequences of a phase transition to a gyrotropic state, including the appearance of a zero field Nernst effect.

9 pages, 1 figure

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Cited by in corpus (18)

• Theory of Intertwined Orders in High Temperature Superconductors
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• Observation of broken time-reversal symmetry in the heavy fermion superconductor UPt${}_3$
• Parity-breaking phases of spin-orbit-coupled metals with gyrotropic, ferroelectric and multipolar orders
• Normal-state nodal electronic structure in underdoped high-Tc copper oxides
• Berry phase mechanism for optical gyrotropy in stripe-ordered cuprates
• Pair-Density-Wave Superconducting States and Electronic Liquid Crystal Phases
• Feedback of superconducting fluctuations on charge order in the underdoped cuprates
• Polar Kerr effect from chiral-nematic charge order
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• Relationship of Time Reversal Symmetry Breaking with Optical Kerr Rotation
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• Absence of the polar Kerr effect in the helical loop-current model [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 047005 (2013)]
• Optical gyrotropy in quadrupolar Kondo systems
• Polar Kerr effect from a time-reversal symmetry breaking unidirectional charge density wave
• Revealing Optically Induced Magnetization in SrTiO${}_3$ using Optically Coupled SQUID Magnetometry and Magnetic Circular Dichroism
• Transverse Thermoelectric Response as a Probe for Existence of Quasiparticles