Phase Fluctuations and Spectral Properties of Underdoped Cuprates

TL;DR

This paper models how classical phase fluctuations influence quasiparticle spectra in underdoped cuprates, explaining experimental data and highlighting the importance of transverse fluctuations above the critical temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a simple semiclassical model coupling d-wave quasiparticles to vortex-induced supercurrents, emphasizing the role of transverse phase fluctuations in the pseudogap regime.

Findings

Photoemission and tunneling data are explained by the model.

Transverse phase fluctuations are significant above T_c.

Longitudinal fluctuations are negligible at all temperatures.

Abstract

We consider the effect of classical phase fluctuations on the quasiparticle spectra of underdoped high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors in the pseudogap regime above $T_c$. We show that photoemission and tunneling spectroscopy data are well accounted for by a simple model in which mean field d-wave quasiparticles are semiclasically coupled to supercurrents induced by fluctuating unbound vortex-antivortex pairs. We argue that the data imply that transverse phase fluctuations are important at temperatures above $T_c$, while longitudinal fluctuations are unimportant at all temperatures.