Phenomenological theory of cuprate superconductivity

TL;DR

This paper presents a phenomenological model that accurately predicts the superconducting transition temperatures of cuprate high-Tc superconductors using only two parameters, normal carrier density and effective mass.

Contribution

It introduces a simple, approximate theory with two criteria to calculate Tc, matching experimental data for twelve cuprate superconductors.

Findings

Good agreement with experimental Tc values.

Simple equation with two parameters suffices.

Applicable to twelve cuprate materials.

Abstract

Reasonably good agreement with the superconducting transition temperatures of the cuprate high-Tc superconductors can be obtained on the basis of an approximate phenomenological theory. In this theory, two criteria are used to calculate the superconducting transition temperature. One is that the quantum wavelength is of the order of the electron-pair spacing. The other is that a very small fraction of the normal carriers exist as Cooper pairs at Tc. The resulting simple equation for Tc contains only two parameters: the normal carrier density and effective mass. We calculate specific transition temperatures for twelve cuprate superconductors.