Anomalous Nodal Gap in a Doped Spin- Antiferromagnetic Mott Insulator

Y Hu, C Lane, X Chen, S Peng, Z Sun, M Hashimoto… - Physical Review Letters, 2025 - APS
Y Hu, C Lane, X Chen, S Peng, Z Sun, M Hashimoto, D Lu, T Wu, RS Markiewicz, X Chen…
Physical Review Letters, 2025APS
Many emergent phenomena appear in doped Mott insulators near the insulator-to-metal
transition. In high-temperature cuprate superconductors, superconductivity arises when
antiferromagnetic (AFM) order is gradually suppressed by carrier doping, and ad-wave
superconducting gap forms when an enigmatic nodal gap evolves into a point node. Here,
we examine electron-doped Sr 2 IrO 4, the 5 d-electron counterpart of cuprates, using angle-
resolved photoemission spectroscopy. At low doping levels, we observe the formation of …
Many emergent phenomena appear in doped Mott insulators near the insulator-to-metal transition. In high-temperature cuprate superconductors, superconductivity arises when antiferromagnetic (AFM) order is gradually suppressed by carrier doping, and a -wave superconducting gap forms when an enigmatic nodal gap evolves into a point node. Here, we examine electron-doped , the -electron counterpart of cuprates, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. At low doping levels, we observe the formation of electronic states near the Fermi level, accompanied by a gap at the AFM zone boundary, mimicking the AFM gap in electron-doped cuprates. With increasing doping, a distinct gap emerges along the nodal direction, paralleling that observed in hole-doped cuprates. This anomalous nodal gap persists after the collapse of the AFM gap and gradually decreases with further doping. It eventually vanishes into a point node of the reported -wave gap. These observations replicate the characteristic features in both electron- and hole-doped cuprates, indicating a unified route toward nodal metallicity in doped spin- AFM Mott insulators.
American Physical Society