title: Spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry in the pseudogap state of a high-Tc superconductor.
abstract: A change in 'symmetry' is often observed when matter undergoes a phase transition-the symmetry is said to be spontaneously broken. The transition made by underdoped high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors is unusual, in that it is not a mean-field transition as seen in other superconductors. Rather, there is a region in the phase diagram above the superconducting transition temperature Tc (where phase coherence and superconductivity begin) but below a characteristic temperature T* where a 'pseudogap' appears in the spectrum of electronic excitations. It is therefore important to establish if T* is just a cross-over temperature arising from fluctuations in the order parameter that will establish superconductivity at Tc (refs 3, 4), or if it marks a phase transition where symmetry is spontaneously broken. Here we report that, for a material in the pseudogap state, left-circularly polarized photons give a different photocurrent from right-circularly polarized photons. This shows that time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken below T*, which therefore corresponds to a phase transition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaminski
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rosenkranz
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Fretwell
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Campuzano
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Raffy
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Cullen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Varma
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Höchst