Condensation, excitation, pairing, and superfluid density in high-$T_{c}$ superconductors: magnetic resonance mode as a roton analogue and a possible spin-mediated pairing

TL;DR

This paper investigates the mechanisms behind high-$T_c$ superconductivity in cuprates, highlighting the role of magnetic resonance modes and hybrid spin/charge excitations as key factors influencing the critical temperature.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a hybrid spin/charge roton as a coupled mode influencing $T_c$, linking magnetic resonance modes to superconducting pairing in cuprates.

Findings

Neutron magnetic resonance mode is analogous to roton minimum in superfluid helium.

The resonance mode energy and superfluid density primarily determine $T_c$ in underdoped cuprates.

Proposes a microscopic model where hybrid spin/charge rotons mediate pairing.

Abstract

To find out a primary determing factor of $T_{c}$ and a pairing mechanism in high-$T_{c}$ cuprates, we combine the muon spin relaxation results on $n_{s}/m^{*}$ (superconducting carrier density / effective mass), accumulated over the last 15 years, with the results from neutron and Raman scattering, STM, specific heat, Nernst effect and ARPES measurements. We identify the neutron magnetic resonance mode as an analogue of roton minimum in the superfluid $^{4}$He, and argue that $n_{s}/m^{*}$ and the resonance mode energy $\hbar\omega_{res}$ play a primary role in determining $T_{c}$ in the underdoped region. We propose a picture that roton-like excitations in the cuprates appear as a coupled mode, which has the resonance mode for spin and charge responses at different momentum transfers but the same energy transfers, as detected respectively, by the neutron S=1 mode and the Raman S=0 A1$_{g}$ mode. We shall call this as the ``hybrid spin/charge roton''. After discussing the role of dimensionality in condensation, we propose a generic phase diagram of the cuprates with spatial phase separation in the overdoped region as a special case of the BE-BCS crossover conjecture where the superconducting coupling is lost rapidly in the overdoped region. Using a microscopic model of charge motion resonating with antiferomagnetic spin fluctuations, we propose a possibility that the hybrid spin/charge roton and higher-energy spin fluctuations mediate the superconducting pairing. In this model, the resonance modes can be viewed as a meson-analogue and the ``dome'' shape of the phase diagram can be understood as a natural consequence of departure from the competing Mott insulator ground state via carrier doping.