Unveiling phase diagram of the lightly doped high-T_c cuprate superconductors with disorder removed.

Abstract

The currently established electronic phase diagram of cuprates is based on a study of single- and double-layered compounds. These CuO₂ planes, however, are directly contacted with dopant layers, thus inevitably disordered with an inhomogeneous electronic state. Here, we solve this issue by investigating a 6-layered Ba₂Ca₅Cu₆O₁₂(F,O)₂ with inner CuO₂ layers, which are clean with the extremely low disorder, by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and quantum oscillation measurements. We find a tiny Fermi pocket with a doping level less than 1% to exhibit well-defined quasiparticle peaks which surprisingly lack the polaronic feature. This provides the first evidence that the slightest amount of carriers is enough to turn a Mott insulating state into a metallic state with long-lived quasiparticles. By tuning hole carriers, we also find an unexpected phase transition from the superconducting to metallic states at 4%. Our results are distinct from the nodal liquid state with polaronic features proposed as an anomaly of the heavily underdoped cuprates.