DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2622416123 ISSN: 0027-8424
Pressure-induced Lifshitz and quantum phase transitions in electron-doped cuprate superconductors
Jinyu Zhao, Shu Cai, Zhaoyu Liu, Jianfeng Zhang, Shuaihang Sun, Pengyu Wang, Jing Guo, Yazhou Zhou, Shiliang Li, Fuyang Liu, Luhong Wang, Haozhe Liu, Yang Ding, Qi Wu, Tao Xiang, Richard L. Greene, Liling Sun
We report observations of a pressure-induced Lifshitz transition coupled with a quantum phase transition in the electron-doped cuprate superconductor Pr
0.87
LaCe
0.13
CuO
4±δ
, by combining high-pressure electrical resistance, Hall coefficient (
R
H
), and synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements at low temperatures. Our low-temperature Hall coefficient (
R
H
) measurements reveal that the
R
H
decreases continuously and reaches zero at ~10 GPa (critical pressure of
P
c1
). Upon further compression beyond
P
c1
,
R
H
unexpectedly changes its sign from negative to positive, signaling a reconstruction of the Fermi surface from electron-dominated to hole-dominated topology. Concurrently, the superconducting transition temperature (
T
c
) exhibits a monotonic suppression, vanishing completely at ~17.6 GPa (critical pressure of
P
c2
), where the system enters a nonsuperconducting metallic state. Our low-temperature XRD measurements unequivocally demonstrate the absence of any structural phase transition across
P
c1
and
P
c2
. Therefore, the sign change in
R
H
at
P
c1
is associated with a Lifshitz transition, which is never found in the compressed bulk electron- or hole-doped cuprate superconductors. Moreover, the quantum phase transition observed at
P
c2
contrasts sharply with known high-pressure behavior of hole-doped cuprates, uncovering a fundamental difference on how pressure tunes the ground states of electron- vs. hole-doped systems. These findings provide crucial insights into the different pressure responses on the interplay among Fermi surface topology, electronic correlations, and superconductivity between these two kinds of cuprate superconductors.