Session W11: Theory of Superconductivity in Cuprates II

2:30 PM–5:18 PM, Thursday, March 13, 2008
Morial Convention Center Room: RO9

Sponsoring Unit: DCMP
Chair: Mohit Randeria, Ohio State University

Abstract ID: BAPS.2008.MAR.W11.4

Abstract: W11.00004 : Suppression of Superfluid Density in Underdoped Cuprates

3:06 PM–3:18 PM

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Authors:

  Wei-Cheng Lee
    (Department of Physics, the University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX 78712)

  Jairo Sinova
    (Department of Physics, Texas A\&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA)

  Anton A. Burkov
    (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1)

  Yogesh Joglekar
    (Department of Physics, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202, USA)

  Allan H. MacDonald
    (Department of Physics, the University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX 78712)

A key challenge for theories of high-T$_{c}$ cuprates is to explain why the superfluid density vanishes as the antiferromagnetic insulator state is approached. Viewing a cuprate as a doped Mott insulator gives a natural explanation of this property, but one that is not obviously compatible with the fact that superconductivity always vanishes at finite doping. We propose another possible explanation, starting from weak-coupling conventional d-wave BCS theory and calculating the correlation contribution to the superfluid density. We show that triplet fluctuations of the d-wave superconducting order parameter are canonically conjugate to antiferromagnetic fluctuations, and that this causes the correlation energy to increase in magnitude when superconductivity is weakened by a phase gradient. In our theory the inelastic neutron scattering resonance has the character of a magnetic plasmon rather than the character of an exciton.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2008.MAR.W11.4