Electron correlation and Fermi surface topology of Na${}_x$CoO${}_2$

Abstract

The electronic structure of Na${}_x$CoO${}_2$ revealed by recent photoemission experiments shows important deviations from band theory predictions. The six small Fermi surface pockets predicted by LDA calculations have not been observed as the associated $e_g^{\prime }$ band fails to cross the Fermi level for a wide range of sodium doping concentration $x$. In addition, significant bandwidth renormalizations of the $t_{2g}$ complex have been observed. We show that these discrepancies are due to strong electronic correlations by studying the multi-orbital Hubbard model in the Hartree-Fock and strong-coupling Gutzwiller approximation. The quasiparticle dispersion and the Fermi surface topology obtained in the presence of strong local Coulomb repulsion are in good agreement with experiments.

5 pages, 4 figures, revtex4; minor changes, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett