Universality of linear in temperature and linear in field Planckian scattering rate in high temperature cuprate superconductors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the universal linear in temperature and linear in field Planckian scattering rates in high-temperature cuprate superconductors, linking experimental observations with a theoretical quantum criticality model.

Contribution

It provides a unified understanding of linear resistivity behaviors in cuprates through a spin-based quantum criticality framework, connecting experiments and theory.

Findings

Observation of universal linear in field and temperature scattering rates in LSCO

Proposal of a microscopic mechanism based on Kondo-like charge fluctuations

Universal field to temperature scaling in scattering rates

Abstract

One of the long standing puzzles in strongly correlated materials is the microscopic origin of the quantum critical Planckian strange metal phase with universal linear in temperature scattering rate from which unconventional superconductivity directly emerges by lowering temperatures. Recently, the linear in temperature and linear in field resistivity have been simultaneously observed in high temperature cuprate superconductors, manifested by the universal field to temperature scaling in magnetoresistivity. To date, there has been a lack of coherent and unified understanding of these coexisting linear behaviors and their possible link to quantum criticality. In this work, we establish the universality in linear in temperature and linear in field Planckian behaviors in underdoped LSCO near optimal doping. Experimentally, we observe the linear in field Planckian scattering rate and its relation to its linear in temperature counterpart. Theoretically, we propose a spin based common microscopic mechanism based on Kondo-like charge fluctuations near local quantum criticality of heavy fermion formulated tJ model subject to a Zeeman term. Similar to frequency to temperature scaling near quantum criticality, we find the magnetic field here effectively introduces a Zeeman energy, reminiscent of an external energy in the quantum critical regime, leading to field to temperature scaling. Our analytically predicted universal field to temperature scaling in isotropic scattering rate and the relation between the linear in temperature and linear in field Planckian coefficients, unifies these two phenomena over an extended doping range, pointing toward a unified quantum-critical origin of Planckian transport in cuprates.