Authors: Barzykin, Victor¹; Pines, David²

Source: Advances In Physics, Volume 58, Number 1, January 2009 , pp. 1-65(65)

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd

Abstract:

We present a detailed review of scaling behaviour in the magnetically underdoped cuprate superconductors (hole dopings less than 0.20) and show that it reflects the presence of two coupled components throughout this doping regime: a non-Landau Fermi liquid and a spin liquid whose behaviour maps onto the theoretical Monte Carlo calculations of the two-dimensional Heisenberg model of localized Cu spins for most of its temperature domain. We use this mapping to extract the doping dependence of the strength, f(x) of the spin liquid component and the effective interaction, Jeff(x) between the remnant localized spins that compose it; we find that both decrease linearly with x as the doping level increases. We discuss the physical origin of pseudogap behaviour and conclude that it is consistent with scenarios in which the both the large energy gaps found in the normal state and their subsequent superconductivity are brought about by the coupling between the Fermi liquid quasiparticles and the spin liquid excitations, and that differences in this coupling between the 1-2-3 and 2-1-4 materials can explain the measured differences in their superconducting transition temperatures and other properties.

Keywords: high-temperature superconductors; copper-oxide superconductors; quantum critical behaviour; universal behaviour; bulk magnetic susceptibility; spin susceptibility; NMR; Knight shift; spin-lattice relaxation rates; inelastic neutron scattering

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00018730802567505

Affiliations: 1: National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA 2: Department of Physics and Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA

Publication date: 2009-01-01

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