Quasiparticle-quasiparticle Scattering in High Tc Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the temperature-dependent quasiparticle-quasiparticle scattering in high T_c d-wave superconductors, explaining the rapid change in electrical transport relaxation rates with temperature.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of inelastic scattering processes, which were less understood compared to elastic impurity scattering, enhancing understanding of transport properties in high T_c superconductors.

Findings

Quasiparticle-quasiparticle scattering explains temperature-dependent relaxation rates.

The study clarifies the role of inelastic scattering in high T_c superconductors.

Results align with observed rapid variation of transport properties with temperature.

Abstract

The quasiparticle lifetime and the related transport relaxation times are the fundamental quantities which must be known in order to obtain a description of the transport properties of the high T_c superconductors. Studies of these quantities have been undertaken previously for the d-wave, high T_c superconductors for the case of temperature-independent elastic impurity scattering. However, much less is known about the temperature-dependent inelastic scattering. Here we give a detailed description of the characteristics of the temperature-dependent quasiparticle-quasiparticle scattering in d-wave superconductors, and find that this process gives a natural explanation of the rapid variation with temperature of the electrical transport relaxation rate.