Pseudogap in underdoped cuprates and spin-density-wave fluctuations

Abstract

We analyze fermionic spectral function in the spin-density-wave (SDW) phase of quasi-2D cuprates at small but finite T. We use a non-perturbative approach and sum up infinite series of thermal self-energy terms, keeping at each order nearly-divergent (T/J) |log epsilon| terms, where epsilon is a deviation from a pure two-dimensionality, and neglecting regular T/J corrections. We show that, as SDW order decreases, the spectral function in the antinodal region acquires peak/hump structure: the coherent peak position scales with SDW order parameter, while the incoherent hump remains roughly at the same scale as at T=0 when SDW order is the strongest. We identify the hump with the pseudogap observed in ARPES and argue that the presence of coherent excitations at low energies gives rise to magneto-oscillations in an applied field. We show that the same peak/hump structure appears in the density of states and in optical conductivity.