Experimental evidence on high-T c cuprates reveals ubiquitous charge density wave (CDW) modulations 1-10 , which coexist with superconductivity. Although the CDW had been predicted by theory 11-13 , important questions remain about the extent to which the CDW influences lattice and charge degrees of freedom and its characteristics as functions of doping and temperature. These questions are intimately connected to the origin of the CDW and its relation to the mysterious cuprate pseudogap 10,14 . Here, we use ultrahigh-resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering to reveal new CDW character in underdoped Bi 2.2 Sr 1.8 Ca 0.8 Dy 0.2 Cu 2 O 8+δ . At low temperature, we observe dispersive excitations from an incommensurate CDW that induces anomalously enhanced phonon intensity, unseen using other techniques. Near the pseudogap temperature T * , the CDW persists, but the associated excitations significantly weaken with an indication of CDW wavevector shift. The dispersive CDW excitations, phonon anomaly, and analysis of the CDW wavevector provide a comprehensive momentumspace picture of complex CDW behaviour and point to a closer relationship with the pseudogap state.With sufficient energy resolution, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) can be an ideal probe for revealing the CDW excitations in cuprates. By tuning the incident photon energy to the Cu L 3 -edge (Fig. 1a), the resonant absorption and emission processes can leave the system in excited final states, which couple to a variety of excitations arising from orbital, spin, charge, and lattice degrees of freedom 15 . Thus, information of these elementary excitations in energy and momentum space can be deduced from analysing the RIXS spectra as functions of the energy loss and the momentum transfer of the photons (Fig. 1a). This is highlighted by the pivotal role that RIXS has recently played in revealing orbital and magnetic excitations in cuprates [16][17][18][19][20] . In addition, RIXS provided the first X-ray scattering evidence for an incommensurate CDW in (Y,Nd)Ba 2 Cu 3 O 6+δ (ref. 4), owing to energy resolution that separated the quasi-elastic CDW signal (bright spot in Fig. 1b, limited by the instrumental resolution ∼130 meV) from other intense higher-energy excitations. Notably this quasi-elastic signal is asymmetric with respect to zero energy loss (Fig. 1c), which indicates the possible existence of additional low-energy excitations near the CDW wavevector (Q CDW ).In this work, we exploit the newly commissioned ultrahighresolution RIXS instrument at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility to reveal these low-energy excitations near the CDW. We choose the double-layer cuprate Bi 2.2 Sr 1.8 Ca 0.8 Dy 0.2 Cu 2 O 8+δ (Bi2212), whose electronic structure has been extensively studied by surface-sensitive spectroscopy, such as scanning tunnelling microscopy 21 and angle-resolved photoemission 22 , and in which a short-range CDW order was recently reported 7,8 . With improved energy resolution up to 40 meV, we see additional features in the pre...

Electron-boson coupling plays a key role in superconductivity for many systems.However, in copper-based high-temperature (Tc) superconductors, its relation to superconductivity remains controversial despite strong spectroscopic fingerprints. Here we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to find a striking correlation between the superconducting gap and the bosonic coupling strength near the Brillouin zone boundary in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. The bosonic coupling strength rapidly increases from the overdoped Fermi-liquid regime to the optimally doped strange metal, concomitant with the quadrupled superconducting gap and the doubled gap-to-Tc ratio across the pseudogap boundary. This synchronized lattice and electronic response suggests that the effects of electronic interaction and the electron-phonon coupling re-enforce each other in a positive feedback loop upon entering the strange metal regime, which in turn drives a stronger superconductivity.Main Text: The phase diagram of cuprate high temperature superconductors hosts a number of complex orders, types of fluctuations and interactions (1 -4). In the non-Fermi liquid strange metal regime, a hierarchy of microscopic interactions are intimately at play but not fully understood (1,2,4). Although the experimental evidence for d-wave superconductivity (5 -7) naturally points to an electron-electron interaction based pairing mechanism (8 -12), the omnipresent charge order (3) points to the role of electron-phonon coupling (EPC), especially in a new context of enhanced EPC by electronic correlation (13,14) and multichannel boosted superconductivity (15 -17).Although there have been reports of EPC imprinting on the electronic structure of many cuprate superconductors (18 -21), little evidence directly correlates EPC with the intertwined orders in the phase diagram (1 -2). Focusing on the overdoped side in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi-2212), we find via angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) a set of striking effects rapidly crossing

In normal metals, macroscopic properties are understood using the concept of quasiparticles. In the cuprate high-temperature superconductors, the metallic state above the highest transition temperature is anomalous and is known as the “strange metal.” We studied this state using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. With increasing doping across a temperature-independent critical value pc ~ 0.19, we observed that near the Brillouin zone boundary, the strange metal, characterized by an incoherent spectral function, abruptly reconstructs into a more conventional metal with quasiparticles. Above the temperature of superconducting fluctuations, we found that the pseudogap also discontinuously collapses at the very same value of pc. These observations suggest that the incoherent strange metal is a distinct state and a prerequisite for the pseudogap; such findings are incompatible with existing pseudogap quantum critical point scenarios.