August 22, 2023
We investigate the bilayer nickelates as a platform to realize the symmetric mass generation (SMG) insulator, a featureless Mott insulator that arises due to the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) anomaly cancellation in bilayer spin-1/2 lattice systems. Through a single-orbital bilayer square lattice model involving intralayer hopping $t$ and interlayer superexchange interaction $J$, we demonstrate the emergence of high-temperature superconductivity (SC) upon doping the SMG insulator. The SC phase features $s$-wave interlayer spin-singlet pairing and exhibits a crossover between the BCS and BEC limits by tuning the $J/t$ ratio. We estimate the SC transition temperature $T_c$ from both the weak and strong coupling limits at the mean-field level. Our findings offer insights into the experimentally observed decrease in $T_c$ with pressure and the strange metal behavior above $T_c$. Additionally, we propose that both Ni $3d_{z^2}$ and $3d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals can exhibit superconductivity in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ under pressure, but their $T_c$ should vary in opposite ways under doping. This characteristic difference suggests a potential experimental pathway to identify which electronic orbital plays the principal role in the formation of superconductivity in this system.
Similar papers 1
February 9, 2024
Recently, signature of superconductivity (SC) in the trilayer compound La$_{4}$Ni$_3$O$_{10}$ has ignited significant interest. In this study, we propose a trilayer $E_g$ orbital $t$-$J_{\parallel}$-$J_{\perp}$ model to gain insights into the superconducting behavior in this material. In the strong coupling limit, each layer is described by a $t$-$J_{\parallel}$ model with intra-layer exchange $J_{\parallel}$, while electrons can hop between layers and interact through inter-...
The discovery of high-$T_c$ superconductivity (SC) in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ (LNO) has aroused a great deal of interests. Previously, it was proposed that the Ni-$3d_{z^2}$ orbital is crucial to realize the high-$T_c$ SC in LNO: The preformed Cooper pairs therein acquire coherence via hybridization with the $3d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital to form the SC. However, we held a different viewpoint that the interlayer pairing $s$-wave SC is induced by the $3d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital, driven by the st...
August 31, 2023
The recently discovered high-T$_C$ superconductor La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ has sparked renewed interest in the unconventional superconductivity. Here we study superconductivity in pressurized La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ based on a bilayer two-orbital $t-J$ model, using the renormalized mean-field theory. Our results reveal a robust $s^\pm-$wave pairing driven by the inter-layer $d_{z^2}$ magnetic coupling, which exhibits a transition temperature within the same order of magnitude as the exper...
July 27, 2023
The newly discovered high-temperature superconductivity in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ under pressure has attracted a great deal of interests. The essential ingredient characterizing the electronic properties is the bilayer NiO$_2$ planes, in which the two layers couple with each other from the bonding of Ni-$3d_{z^2}$ orbital through the intermediate oxygen-atoms. In the strong coupling limit, an intralayer antiferromagnetic spin-exchange interaction $J_{\parallel}$ between $3d_{x^2-y...
August 18, 2023
Possible high-$T_c$ superconductivity (SC) has been found experimentally in the bilayer material La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ under high pressure recently, in which the Ni-$3d_{3z^2-r^2}$ and $3d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals are expected to play a key role in the electronic structure and the SC. Here we study the two-orbital electron correlations and the nature of the SC using the bilayer two-orbital Hubbard model downfolded from the band structure of La3Ni2O7 in the framework of the dynamical m...
August 13, 2023
Motivated by the recent discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in bilayer La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ under pressure, we study its electronic properties and superconductivity due to strong electron correlation. Using the inversion symmetry, we decouple the low-energy electronic structure into block-diagonal symmetric and antisymmetric sectors. We find that the antisymmetric sector can be reduced to a one-band system near half filling, while the symmetric bands occupied by abou...
November 9, 2023
The newly discovered high-$T_c$ nickelate superconductor La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ has generated significant research interest. To uncover the pairing mechanism, it is essential to investigate the intriguing interplay between the two $e_g$, i.e., $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d_{z^2}$ orbitals. Here we perform an infinite projected entangled-pair state (iPEPS) study of the bilayer $t$-$J$ model, directly in the thermodynamic limit and with orbitally selective parameters for $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d...
February 7, 2024
Motivated by the recently reported signatures of superconductivity in trilayer La$_4$Ni$_3$O$_{10}$ under pressure, we comprehensively study this system using {\it ab initio} and random-phase approximation techniques. Without electronic interactions, the Ni $d_{3z^2-r^2}$ orbitals show a bonding-antibonding and nonbonding splitting behavior via the O $p_z$ orbitals inducing a ``trimer'' lattice in La$_4$Ni$_3$O$_{10}$, analogous to the dimers of La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_{7}$. The Fermi...
September 26, 2024
The recent experiment shows the superconducting transition temperature in the Ruddlesden-Popper bilayer La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_{7}$ decreases monotonically with increasing pressure above 14 GPa. In order to unravel the underlying mechanism for this unusual dependence, we performed theoretical investigations by combining the density functional theory (DFT) and the unbiased functional renormalization group (FRG). Our DFT calculations show that the Fermi pockets are essentially unchange...
Motivated by the recent discovery of superconductivity in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ under pressure, we discuss the basic ingredients of a model that captures its microscopic physics under pressure tuning. We anchor our description in terms of the spectroscopic evidence of strong correlations in this system. In a bilayer Hubbard model including the Ni $3d$ $x^2-y^2$ and $z^2$ orbitals, we show the ground state of the model crosses over from a low-spin $S=1/2$ state to a high-spin $S=3...