Dynamical local lattice instabilitiy triggered high tc superconductivity

TL;DR

This paper proposes that dynamical local lattice instabilities in cuprate superconductors facilitate a Feshbach resonance exchange mechanism, leading to high-temperature superconductivity through phase separation of bound and unbound electron pairs.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism linking local lattice instabilities to high $T_c$ superconductivity via Feshbach resonance and phase separation, emphasizing the role of dynamical lattice effects.

Findings

Identification of fluctuating Cu-O-Cu valence bonds as key to pairing

Pseudo-gap formation below temperature T* due to electron pair locking

Phase separation between different pair density phases induces superconductivity

Abstract

High $T_c$ cuprate superconductors are characterized by two robust features: their strong electronic correlations and their intrinsic dynamical local lattice instabilities. Focusing on exclusively that latter, we picture their parent state in form of a quantum vacuum representing an electronic magma in which bound diamagnetic spin-singlet pairs pop in and out of existence in a Fermi sea of itinerant electrons. The mechanism behind that resides in the structural incompatibility of two stereo-chemical configurations Cu$^{\rm II}$O$_4$ and Cu$^{\rm III}$O$_4$ which compose the CuO$_2$ planes. It leads to spontaneously fluctuating Cu - O - Cu valence bonds which establish a local Feshbach resonance exchange coupling between bound and unbound electron pairs. The coupling, being the only free parameter in this scenario, the hole doping of the parent state is monitored by varying the total number of unpaired and paired electrons, in chemical equilibrium with each other. Upon lowering the temperature to below a certain $T^*$, bound and unbound electron pairs lock together in a local quantum superposition, generating transient localized bound electron pairs and a concomitant opening of a pseudo-gap in the single-particle density of states. At low temperature, this pseudo-gap state transits via a first order hole doping induced phase transition into a superconducting state in which the localized transient bound electron pairs get spatially phase correlated. The mechanism driving that transition is a phase separation between two phases having different relative densities of bound and unbound electron pairs, which is reminiscent of the physics of $^4$He - $^3$He mixtures.