Electronic Polarizability Induced Cooper-like Pairing and Energy Gap in High-Tc superconductors

TL;DR

This paper proposes that electronic polarizability around charge carriers induces attractive interactions leading to high-temperature superconductivity, explaining key parameters in various high-Tc materials.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking ion electronic polarizability to superconductivity, providing a unified explanation for Tc, energy gap, and pairing energies in high-Tc superconductors.

Findings

Model accurately predicts Tc, gap, and pairing energies in FeSe, SrTiO3, and La2CuO4.

Results align well with experimental data across different high-Tc materials.

Electronic polarizability may be a universal mechanism in high-temperature superconductivity.

Abstract

High temperature superconducting materials have been known since the pioneering work of Bednorz and Mueller in 1986. While the microscopic mechanism responsible for high Tc superconductivity is still debated, most materials showing high Tc contain highly electronic polarizable ions, suggesting that the mechanism driving high Tc superconductivity can be related to the ion electronic polarizability in high Tc materials. Here we show that a free charge carrier polarizes the ions surrounding it and the total electrical potential generated by the charge carrier itself and the polarized ions becomes attractive in some regions of space. Our results on bulk FeSe, monolayer FeSe on SrTiO3 and La2CuO4 are in excellent agreement with the experiments. The fact that the electronic polarizability explains correctly and quantitatively the superconductivity parameters: Tc, gap and paring energies of both pnictides and cuprates with similar polarizability parameters, suggests that the same model may be applicable to other material systems within these groups as well as other high Tc groups.