Pair breaking as a probe of d-wave high-temperature superconductivity

High temperature superconductivity in the cuprates remains one of the most widely investigated, constantly surprising and poorly understood phenomena in physics. Here, we describe briefly a new phenomenological theory inspired by the celebrated description of superconductivity due to Ginzburg and Landau and believed to describe its essence. This posits a free energy functional for the superconductor in terms of a complex order parameter characterizing it. We propose that there is, for superconducting cuprates, a similar functional of the complex, in plane, nearest neighbor spin singlet bond (or Cooper) pair amplitude ψij. Further, we suggest that a crucial part of it is a (short range) positive interaction between nearest neighbor bond pairs, of strength J′. Such an interaction leads to nonzero long wavelength phase stiffness or superconductive long range order, with the observed d-wave symmetry, below a temperature Tc~z J′ where z is the number of nearest neighbors; d-wave superconductivity is thus an emergent, collective consequence. Using the functional, we calculate a large range of properties, e.g., the pseudogap transition temperature T* as a function of hole doping x, the transition curve Tc(x), the superfluid stiffness ρs(x, T), the specific heat (without and with a magnetic field) due to the fluctuating pair degrees of freedom and the zero temperature vortex structure. We find remarkable agreement with experiment. We also calculate the self-energy of electrons hopping on the square cuprate lattice and coupled to electrons of nearly opposite momenta via inevitable long wavelength Cooper pair fluctuations formed of these electrons. The ensuing results for electron spectral density are successfully compared with recent experimental results for angle resolved photo emission spectroscopy (ARPES), and comprehensively explain strange features such as temperature dependent Fermi arcs above Tc and the "bending" of the superconducting gap below Tc.

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High-temperature superconductivity with d-wave symmetry of the order parameter (Review Article)

Low Temperature Physics ◽

10.1063/1.593677 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 24 (11) ◽

pp. 771-781 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

G. G. Sergeeva ◽

Yu. P. Stepanovskiı̆ ◽

A. V. Chechkin

Keyword(s):

High Temperature ◽

Order Parameter ◽

High Temperature Superconductivity ◽

Review Article ◽

Wave Symmetry ◽

D Wave

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Theory of d-Wave High Temperature Superconductivity in the Cuprates Involving Non-linear Lattice Modes

Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism ◽

10.1007/s10948-017-4087-4 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (12) ◽

pp. 3377-3395

Author(s):

B. S. Lee ◽

T. L. Yoon ◽

R. Abd-Shukor

Keyword(s):

High Temperature ◽

High Temperature Superconductivity ◽

Linear Lattice ◽

Non Linear ◽

Lattice Modes ◽

D Wave

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Quantitative determination of pairing interactions for high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.1501329 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. e1501329 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Jin Mo Bok ◽

Jong Ju Bae ◽

Han-Yong Choi ◽

Chandra M. Varma ◽

Wentao Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Temperature ◽

Quantitative Determination ◽

High Temperature Superconductivity ◽

Theoretical Calculations ◽

Spectral Weight ◽

Loop Current ◽

Low Energies ◽

Repulsive Part ◽

D Wave

A profound problem in modern condensed matter physics is discovering and understanding the nature of fluctuations and their coupling to fermions in cuprates, which lead to high-temperature superconductivity and the invariably associated strange metal state. We report the quantitative determination of normal and pairing self-energies, made possible by laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements of unprecedented accuracy and stability. Through a precise inversion procedure, both the effective interactions in the attractive d-wave symmetry and the repulsive part in the full symmetry are determined. The latter is nearly angle-independent. Near Tc, both interactions are nearly independent of frequency and have almost the same magnitude over the complete energy range of up to about 0.4 eV, except for a low-energy feature at around 50 meV that is present only in the repulsive part, which has less than 10% of the total spectral weight. Well below Tc, they both change similarly, with superconductivity-induced features at low energies. Besides finding the pairing self-energy and the attractive interactions for the first time, these results expose the central paradox of the problem of high Tc: how the same frequency-independent fluctuations can dominantly scatter at angles ±π/2 in the attractive channel to give d-wave pairing and lead to angle-independent repulsive scattering. The experimental results are compared with available theoretical calculations based on antiferromagnetic fluctuations, the Hubbard model, and quantum-critical fluctuations of the loop-current order.

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IMPLICATIONS OF Gd DESTROYING HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTIVITY

Modern Physics Letters B ◽

10.1142/s0217984905008359 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 19 (07n08) ◽

pp. 401-404

Author(s):

JOHN D. DOW ◽

DALE R. HARSHMAN

Keyword(s):

High Temperature ◽

Crystal Field ◽

High Temperature Superconductivity ◽

High Temperature Superconductors ◽

Rare Earth Ions ◽

The Other ◽

Interstitial Oxygen ◽

Pair Breaking ◽

Crystal Fields ◽

Magnetic Ion

The magnetic ion Gd +3, having L = 0 and J ≠ 0, is unsplit by crystal fields and, unlike the other trivalent L ≠ 0 rare-earth ions (which are crystal-field split), is a pair-breaker in high-temperature superconductors. Consequently two-layer compounds with Gd (i.e., Gd 2-z Ce z CuO 4 and Ba 2 GdRu 1-u Cu u O 6) do not superconduct, but their sister compounds without unsplit and pair-breaking Gd , do superconduct (e.g., Nd 2-z Ce z CuO 4, with crystal-field split Nd , and Sr 2 YRu 1-u Cu u O 6, with L = 0 Y , both superconduct). The superconductivity clearly originates in the oxygen of the SrO or BaO layers, or in interstitial oxygen, not in the CuO 2 planes.

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