Scaling of the transition temperature of hole-doped cuprate superconductors with the charge-transfer energy

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations and cluster DMFT to identify how charge-transfer energy influences the maximum superconducting transition temperature in hole-doped cuprates, resolving previous theoretical contradictions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that charge-transfer energy variations primarily explain the empirical trend in $ ext{T}_c^{max}$ in cuprates, providing a microscopic understanding.

Findings

Charge-transfer energy correlates with $ ext{T}_c^{max}$

Variation in charge-transfer energy explains empirical trends

Resolves previous theoretical contradictions

Abstract

We use first-principles calculations to extract two essential microscopic parameters, the charge-transfer energy and the inter-cell oxygen-oxygen hopping, which correlate with the maximum superconducting transition temperature $\Tcmax$ across the cuprates. We explore the superconducting state in the three-band model of the copper-oxygen planes using cluster Dynamical Mean-Field Theory. We find that the variation in the charge-transfer energy largely accounts for the empirical trend in $\Tcmax$, resolving a long-standing contradiction with theoretical calculations.