Unconventional isotope effects in the high-temperature cuprate superconductors

TL;DR

This paper reviews unconventional isotope effects in high-temperature cuprate superconductors, highlighting the significant role of lattice vibrations in their pairing mechanism and various physical properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of isotope effects, emphasizing their implications for understanding the electron-phonon interaction in high-T_c superconductors.

Findings

Unconventional isotope effects observed on supercarrier mass and charge-stripe formation.

Isotope effects influence pseudogap formation and magnetic ordering temperatures.

Lattice vibrations are crucial in the microscopic pairing mechanism.

Abstract

We review various isotope effects in the high-T_c cuprate superconductors to assess the role of the electron-phonon interaction in the basic physics of these materials. Of particular interest are the unconventional isotope effects on the supercarrier mass, on the charge-stripe formation temperature, on the pseudogap formation temperature, on the EPR linewidth, on the spin-glass freezing temperature, and on the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature. The observed unconventional isotope effects strongly suggest that lattice vibrations play an important role in the microscopic pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity.