Authors: S. Smit, E. Mauri, L. Bawden, F. Heringa, F. Gerritsen, E. van Heumen, Y. K. Huang, T. Kondo, T. Takeuchi, N. E. Hussey, M. Allan, T. K. Kim, C. Cacho, A. Krikun, K. Schalm, H.T.C. Stoof, M. S. Golden
Published: 2024-05-29
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48594-6
Source: Full article
AbstractThe anomalous strange metal phase found in high-Tc cuprates does not follow the conventional condensed-matter principles enshrined in the Fermi liquid and presents a great challenge for theory. Highly precise experimental determination of the electronic self-energy can provide a test bed for theoretical models of strange metals, and angle-resolved photoemission can provide this as a function of frequency, momentum, temperature and doping. Here we show that constant energy cuts through the nodal spectral function in (Pb,Bi)2Sr2−xLaxCuO6+δ have a non-Lorentzian lineshape, consistent with a self-energy that is k dependent. This provides a new test for aspiring theories. Here we show that the experimental data are captured remarkably well by a power law with a k-dependent scaling exponent smoothly evolving with doping, a description that emerges naturally from anti-de Sitter/conformal-field-theory based semi-holography. This puts a spotlight on holographic methods for the quantitative modelling of strongly interacting quantum materials like the cuprate strange metals.