Effect of realistic out-of-plane dopant potentials on the superfluid density of overdoped cuprates

TL;DR

This paper investigates how realistic out-of-plane dopant potentials affect the superfluid density in overdoped cuprates, using ab-initio calculations to support a phenomenological theory that explains experimental observations.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative ab-initio analysis of dopant impurity potentials, extending previous models to better match experimental superfluid density data in overdoped cuprates.

Findings

Realistic impurity potentials explain superfluid density behavior

Forward scattering corrections are crucial for transport properties

Theory matches experimental data within semiquantitative accuracy

Abstract

Recent experimental papers on hole-doped overdoped cuprates have argued that a series of observations showing unexpected behavior in the superconducting state imply the breakdown of the quasiparticle-based Landau-BCS paradigm in that doping range. In contrast, some of the present authors have argued that a phenomenological "dirty $d$-wave" theoretical analysis explains essentially all aspects of thermodynamic and transport properties in the superconducting state, provided the unusual effects of weak, out-of-plane dopant impurities are properly accounted for. Here we attempt to place this theory on a more quantitative basis by performing $\textit{ab-initio}$ calculations of dopant impurity potentials for LSCO and Tl-2201. These potentials are more complex than the pointlike impurity models considered previously, and require calculation of forward scattering corrections to transport properties. Including realistic, ARPES-derived bandstructures, Fermi liquid renormalizations, and vertex corrections, we show that the theory can explain semiquantitatively the unusual superfluid density measurements of the two most studied overdoped materials.