Origin of the metal-to-insulator crossover in cuprate superconductors

Abstract

Superconductivity in cuprates peaks in the doping regime between a metal at high p and an insulator at low p. Understanding how the material evolves from metal to insulator is a fundamental and open question. Early studies in high magnetic fields revealed that below some critical doping an insulator-like upturn appears in the resistivity of cuprates at low temperature, but its origin has remained a puzzle. Here we propose that this 'metal-to-insulator crossover' is due to a drop in carrier density n associated with the onset of the pseudogap phase at a critical doping p*. We use high-field resistivity measurements on LSCO to show that the upturns are quantitatively consistent with a drop from n=1+p above p* to n=p below p*, in agreement with high-field Hall data in YBCO. We demonstrate how previously reported upturns in the resistivity of LSCO, YBCO and Nd-LSCO are explained by the same universal mechanism: a drop in carrier density by 1.0 hole per Cu atom.

arXiv comment16 pages, 4 figures, Supplementary material (12 pages, 7 figures)

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Cited by in corpus (26)

• Scale-invariant magnetoresistance in a cuprate superconductor
• Pseudogap temperature $T^{\star }$ of cuprate superconductors from the Nernst effect
• Photoemission perspective on pseudogap, superconducting fluctuations, and charge order in cuprates: a review of recent progress
• Fermi-surface transformation across the pseudogap critical point of the cuprate superconductor La${}_{1.6-x}$Nd${}_{0.4}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$
• Pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors confined by Fermi surface topology
• Doping the holographic Mott insulator
• Fermi surface reconstruction and drop of Hall number due to spiral antiferromagnetism in high-$T_c$ cuprates
• Reconciling scaling of the optical conductivity of cuprate superconductors with Planckian resistivity and specific heat
• Seebeck coefficient in a cuprate superconductor: particle-hole asymmetry in the strange metal phase and Fermi surface transformation in the pseudogap phase
• Longitudinal and anomalous Hall conductivity of a general two-band model
• Fermi Surface reconstruction and anomalous low temperature resistivity in electron-doped La2-xCexCuO4
• Hidden Fermi-liquid charge transport in the antiferromagnetic phase of the electron-doped cuprates
• Phenomenological theories of the low-temperature pseudogap: Hall number, specific heat and Seebeck coefficient
• Charge carrier drop at the onset of pseudogap behavior in the two-dimensional Hubbard model
• The ladder physics in the Spin Fermion model
• Mottness at finite doping and charge-instabilities in cuprates
• Thermal and electrical transport in metals and superconductors across antiferromagnetic and topological quantum transitions
• Insulators and metals with topological order and discrete symmetry breaking
• Suppression of Hall number due to charge density wave order in high-$T_c$ cuprates
• Simultaneous drop in mean free path and carrier density at the pseudogap onset in high-$T_c$ cuprates
• Carrier density crossover and quasiparticle mass enhancement in a doped 5$d$ Mott insulator
• The Transformation of the Superconducting Gap to an Insulating Pseudogap at a Critical Hole Density in the Cuprates
• Strange Metallic Transport in the Antiferromagnetic Regime of Electron Doped Cuprates
• Magnetotransport in overdoped La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$: a Fermi liquid approach
• Normal state pair nematicity and hidden magnetic order and metal-insulator (fermion-boson)- crossover origin of pseudogap phase of cuprates II
• Electrical Conductivity in Quantum Materials