Time-resolved and equilibrium resonant X-ray studies of nematicity in cuprate superconductors

Abstract

Attracting four decades of experimental and theoretical investigations since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity, cuprates have become an essential benchmark for the exploration of intertwined electronic symmetry-breaking phases such as superconductivity, magnetism, nematicity, charge or spin density wave order in strongly correlated systems. Understanding how these phases are intertwined is of general and fundamental interest to a wide range of quantum materials. This doctoral work employs the element- and orbital-specific sensitivity of time-resolved and equilibrium resonant X-ray scattering to investigate electronic nematicity and charge density wave (CDW) order in cuprates. By probing their responses to photoexcitation using ultrafast laser pump-probe setups, varying hole doping levels, and applying compressive uniaxial stress, this thesis attempts to disentangle, understand, and manipulate intertwined phases in stripe-ordered cuprates.