We investigate the microscopic mechanism of charge instabilities and the formation of inhomogeneous states in systems with strong electron correlations. It is demonstrated that within a strong coupling expansion the single-band Hubbard model shows an instability towards phase separation and extend the approach also for an analysis of phase separation in the Hubbard-Kanamori hamiltonian as a prototypical multiband model. We study the pairing fluctuations on top of an inhomogeneous stripe state where superconducting correlations in the extended s-wave and d-wave channels correspond to (anti)bound states in the two-particle spectra. Whereas extended s-wave fluctuations are relevant on the scale of the local interaction parameter U, we find that d-wave fluctuations are pronounced in the energy range of the active subband which crosses the Fermi level. As a result low energy spin and charge fluctuations can transfer the d-wave correlations from the bound states to the low energy quasiparticle bands. Our investigations therefore help to understand the coexistence of stripe correlations and d-wave superconductivity in cuprates.
Categories: cond-mat.supr-con cond-mat.str-el