Origin of quantum oscillations in doped cuprates

Abstract

It is proposed that Fermi-surface reconstruction in electron-doped Ln_{2-x}Ce_xCuO_4 (Ln = Pr, Nd) and in hole-doped YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+y} and YBa_2Cu_4O_8 occurs when the Fermi arcs extend into the second Brillouin zone (BZ). The criterion employs the axial component of the Fermi-arc tips, \hat{q} > 0.5, depending on both the position of the Fermi arc's center \dot{Q} and the incommensurabity \delta_c of unidirectional (striped) charge-density waves (CDWs). Qualitatively, the concave end-pieces of the Fermi arcs, terminated by Bragg-reflection mirrors due to the CDWs and severed at the boundary of the first BZ by lattice Bragg reflection, are assumed to join and relax to convex loops. Those entities may correspond to the electron pockets attributed to the quantum oscillations observed in these compounds. The criterion also explains why no quantum oscillations are found in the simple hole-doped lanthanum cuprates, La_{2-x}Ae_xCuO_4 (Ae = Sr, Ba), and in the bismuth cuprates Bi_2Sr_{2-x}La_xCuO_{6+y} and Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+y}. The possibility of quantum oscillations in hole-doped, partly substituted La_{2-y-x}Ln_ySr_xCuO_4 (Ln = Nd, Eu; y = 0.4, 0.2) in the high-end doping interval of their pseudogap phase, 0.182 < x < 0.235, is raised. A geometric modification of Bragg-reflection mirrors applies to HgBa_2CuO_{4+y} where CDWs are bidirectional (checkerboard-like).