Hot spots along the Fermi contour of high-$T_c$ cuprates analyzed by $s$-$d$ exchange interaction

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive theoretical analysis of electron properties in high-$T_c$ cuprates, linking $s$-$d$ exchange interactions to superconducting gap anisotropy and scattering rates, aligning with experimental ARPES data.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic derivation of a separable kernel within the $s$-$d$ exchange framework that explains gap and scattering anisotropies in cuprates.

Findings

Superconducting gap and scattering rate vanish simultaneously along Brillouin zone diagonals.

The same $s$-$d$ exchange Hamiltonian describes both gap anisotropy and scattering rate anisotropy.

Theoretical results reproduce ARPES phenomenology of cuprates.

Abstract

We perform a thorough theoretical study of the electron properties of a generic CuO$_2$ plane in the framework of Shubin-Kondo-Zener $s$-$d$ exchange interaction that simultaneously describes the correlation between $T_c$ and the Cu4$s$ energy. To this end, we apply the Pokrovsky theory [J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 13, 447-450 (1961)] for anisotropic gap BCS superconductors. It takes into account the thermodynamic fluctuations of the electric field in the dielectric direction perpendicular to the conducting layers. We microscopically derive a multiplicatively separable kernel able to describe the scattering rate in the momentum space, as well as the superconducting gap anisotropy within the BCS theory. These findings may be traced back to the fact that both the Fermi liquid and the BCS reductions lead to one and the same reduced Hamiltonian involving a separable interaction, such that a strong electron scattering corresponds to a strong superconducting gap and vice versa. Moreover, the superconducting gap and the scattering rate vanish simultaneously along the diagonals of the Brillouin zone. We would like to stress that our theoretical study reproduces the phenomenological analysis of other authors aiming at describing Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy measurements. Within standard approximations one and the same $s$-$d$ exchange Hamiltonian describes gap anisotropy of the superconducting phase and the anisotropy of scattering rate of charge carriers in the normal phase.