Two different quasiparticle scattering rates in vortex line liquid phase of layered d-wave superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates how nodal quasiparticles in layered d-wave superconductors exhibit two distinct scattering rates in the vortex line liquid phase, affecting various experimental measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel path integral approach to analyze quasiparticle behavior, revealing different scattering rates depending on the experimental method.

Findings

Quasiparticle scattering rates differ between photoemission and thermal transport versus tunneling and specific heat.

The analysis provides insight into the complex quasiparticle dynamics in the vortex line liquid phase.

Different experimental probes are sensitive to different quasiparticle scattering mechanisms.

Abstract

We carry out a quantum mechanical analysis of the behavior of nodal quasiparticles in the vortex line liquid phase of planar d-wave superconductors. Applying a novel path integral technique we calculate a number of experimentally relevant observables and demonstrate that in the low-field regime the quasiparticle scattering rates deduced from photoemission and thermal transport data can be markedly different from that extracted from tunneling, specific heat, superfluid stiffness or spin-lattice relaxation time.