No Arabic abstract
Scaling laws express a systematic and universal simplicity among complex systems in nature. For example, such laws are of enormous significance in biology. Scaling relations are also important in the physical sciences. The seminal 1986 discovery of high transition-temperature (high-T_c) superconductivity in cuprate materials has sparked an intensive investigation of these and related complex oxides, yet the mechanism for superconductivity is still not agreed upon. In addition, no universal scaling law involving such fundamental properties as T_c and the superfluid density rho_s, a quantity indicative of the number of charge carriers in the superconducting state, has been discovered. Here we demonstrate that the scaling relation rho_s propto sigma_{dc} T_c, where the conductivity sigma_{dc} characterizes the unidirectional, constant flow of electric charge carriers just above T_c, universally holds for a wide variety of materials and doping levels. This surprising unifying observation is likely to have important consequences for theories of high-T_c superconductivity.
We propose and show that the c-axis transport in high-temperature superconductors is controlled by the pseudogap energy and the c-axis resistivity satisfies a universal scaling law in the pseudogap phase. We derived approximately a scaling function for the c-axis resistivity and found that it fits well with the experimental data of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$, Bi$_2$Sr$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{10+delta}$, and YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-delta}$. Our works reveals the physical origin of the semiconductor-like behavior of the c-axis resistivity and suggests that the c-axis hopping is predominantly coherent.
An analytical model invoking variations in the charge-carrier density is used to generate magnetoresistance curves that are almost indistinguishable from those produced by sophisticated numerical models. This demonstrates that, though disorder is pivotal in causing linear magnetoresistance, the form of the magnetoresistance thus generated is insensitive to details of the disorder. Taken in conjunction with the temperature ($T$) dependence of the zero-field resistivity, realistic levels of disorder are shown to be sufficient to explain the linear magnetoresistance and field-$T$ resistance scaling observed in high-temperature pnictide and cuprate superconductors. Hence, though the $T$-linear zero-field resistance is a definite signature of the strange metal state of high-temperature superconductors, their linear magnetoresistance and its scaling is unlikely to be so.
Dramatic evolution of properties with minute change in the doping level is a hallmark of the complex chemistry which governs cuprate superconductivity as manifested in the celebrated superconducting domes as well as quantum criticality taking place at precise compositions. The strange metal state, where the resistivity varies linearly with temperature, has emerged as a central feature in the normal state of cuprate superconductors. The ubiquity of this behavior signals an intimate link between the scattering mechanism and superconductivity. However, a clear quantitative picture of the correlation has been lacking. Here, we report observation of quantitative scaling laws between the superconducting transition temperature $T_{rm c}$ and the scattering rate associated with the strange metal state in electron-doped cuprate $rm La_{2-x}Ce_xCuO_4$ (LCCO) as a precise function of the doping level. High-resolution characterization of epitaxial composition-spread films, which encompass the entire overdoped range of LCCO has allowed us to systematically map its structural and transport properties with unprecedented accuracy and increment of $Delta x = 0.0015$. We have uncovered the relations $T_{rm c}sim(x_{rm c}-x)^{0.5}sim(A_1^square)^{0.5}$, where $x_c$ is the critical doping where superconductivity disappears on the overdoped side and $A_1^square$ is the scattering rate of perfect $T$-linear resistivity per CuO$_2$ plane. We argue that the striking similarity of the $T_{rm c}$ vs $A_1^square$ relation among cuprates, iron-based and organic superconductors is an indication of a common mechanism of the strange metal behavior and unconventional superconductivity in these systems.
The relation between the incommensurability observed in neutron scattering experiments in bilayer cuprate superconductors and the electronic structure is investigated. It is found that the observed incommesurability pattern, as well as its dependence on energy, can be well reproduced by electronic dispersions motivated by angle resolved photoemission data. The commensurate resonance and its contribution to the superconducting condensation energy are discussed in the context of these calculations.
A universal scaling relation, $rho_s propto sigma(T_c)times T_c$ has been reported by Homes $et$ $al$. (Nature (London) {bf 430}, 539 (2004)) where $rho_s$ is the superfluid density and $sigma(T)$ is the DC conductivity. The relation was shown to apply to both c-axis and in-plane dynamics for high-$T_c$ superconductors as well as to the more conventional superconductors Nb and Pb, suggesting common physics in these systems. We show quantitatively that the scaling behavior has several possible origins including, marginal Fermi-liquid behavior, Josephson coupling, dirty-limit superconductivity and unitary impurity scattering for a d-wave order parameter. However, the relation breaks down seriously in overdoped cuprates, and possibly even at lower doping.