Resistance of High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper presents a self-consistent model explaining the temperature and doping dependence of resistivity, Hall effect, and magnetoresistance in cuprate superconductors by considering their intrinsic inhomogeneity and phonon-mediated pairing.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative, inhomogeneity-based model that unifies various normal state properties of cuprates and links superconductivity to phonons.

Findings

Resistivity, Hall effect, and magnetoresistance are explained by inhomogeneity and percolation.

Superconducting pairing is attributed to phonons based on dopant-induced plaquettes.

The model provides a unified understanding of normal and superconducting states.

Abstract

Cuprate superconductors have many different atoms per unit cell. A large fraction of cells (5-25%) must be modified ("doped") before the material superconducts. Thus it is not surprising that there is little consensus on the superconducting mechanism, despite almost 200,000 papers. Most astonishing is that for the simplest electrical property, the resistance, "despite sustained theoretical efforts over the past two decades, its origin and its relation to the superconducting mechanism remain a profound, unsolved mystery." Currently, model parameters used to fit normal state properties are experiment specific and vary arbitrarily from one doping to the other. Here, we provide a quantitative explanation for the temperature and doping dependence of the resistivity, Hall effect, and magnetoresistance in one self-consistent model by showing that cuprates are intrinsically inhomogeneous with a percolating metallic region and insulating regions. Using simple counting of dopant-induced plaquettes, we show that the superconducting pairing and resistivity are due to phonons.