Comment on "Apical charge flux-modulated in-plane transport properties of cuprate superconductors"

Abstract

The abstract of Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 157001 (2018) claims to "demonstrate, using ab initio computations, a new trend suggesting that the cuprates with stronger out-of-CuO${}_2$-plane chemical bonding between the apical anion (O, Cl) and apical cation (e.g., La, Hg, Bi, Tl) are generally correlated with higher $T_{c\max }$ in experiments". We point out that this trend is included in the long-known [Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 047003 (2001)] correlation of $T_{c\max }$ with the hopping range of the electrons at (the most interlayer-bonding sheet of) the Fermi-surface. Contrary to the impression given in Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 157001 (2018), the correlation mentioned in Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 047003 (2001) is not simply with the distance, $d_A,$ of apical oxygen from the nearest CuO${}_2$ plane; but rather, as stated in the abstract of Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 047003 (2001), "It is controlled by the energy of the axial orbital, a hybrid between Cu 4$s$, apical-oxygen 2$p_z,$ and farther orbitals."

1 page. Comment to Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 157001 (2018)