Anomalously high quasiparticle thermal conductivity in the underdoped cuprate superconductor HgBa${}_2$CuO${}_{4+\delta }$

Abstract

The single-layer cuprate superconductor HgBa${}_2$CuO${}_{4+\delta }$ (Hg1201) is an ideal candidate for investigating many properties of cuprates with minimal disorder and without the complication of multiple CuO${}_2$ layers. Here we measure the in-plane longitudinal thermal conductivity $\kappa$ of underdoped Hg1201 ($T_c$ = 76 K, $p$ = 0.11) at dilution refrigerator temperatures to extract the nodal quasiparticle velocity ratio $v_F/v_{\Delta }$. Assuming contributions from only a single line node per quadrant on the Fermi surface leads to a value of $v_F/v_{\Delta }$ = $23\pm 3$, anomalously large compared to other cuprates at similar dopings. In conjunction with the anomalously high quasiparticle specific heat of Hg1201 in the normal state reported previously at a similar doping, this points to more than one Fermi surface sheet crossing the nodal line, suggesting the presence of more than the single small electron pocket detected by quantum oscillations.