Anomalously high quasiparticle thermal conductivity in the underdoped cuprate superconductor HgBa$_{2}$CuO$_{4+δ}$

Abstract

The single-layer cuprate superconductor HgBa$_{2}$CuO$_{4+δ}$ (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 $κ$ of underdoped Hg1201 ($T_c$ = 76 K, $p$ = 0.11) at dilution refrigerator temperatures to extract the nodal quasiparticle velocity ratio $v_F/v_Δ$. Assuming contributions from only a single line node per quadrant on the Fermi surface leads to a value of $v_F/v_Δ$ = $23 \pm 3$, 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.