Magnetic breakdown and quantum oscillations in electron-doped high-temperature superconductor Nd2-xCexCuO4

Recent, more precise experiments have revealed both a slow and a fast quantum oscillation in the c-axis resistivity of nearly optimal to overdoped electron-doped high-temperature superconductor Nd2-xCexCuO4. Here, we study this problem from the perspective of Fermi surface reconstruction using an exact transfer matrix method and the Pichard-Landauer formula. In this method, neither quasiclassical approximations for magnetic breakdown nor ad hoc broadening of Landau levels is necessary to study the high-field quantum oscillations. The underlying Hamiltonian is a mean-field Hamiltonian that incorporates a twofold commensurate Fermi surface reconstruction. While the specific mean field considered is the d-density wave, similar results can also be obtained by a model of a spin density wave, as was explicitly demonstrated earlier. The results are consistent with an interplay of magnetic breakdown across small gaps in the reconstructed Fermi surface and Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations.