High-T${}_c$ cuprates: a story of two electron subsystems

Abstract

A review of the phenomenology and microscopy of cuprate superconductors is presented, with particular attention to universal conductance features, which reveal the existence of two electronic subsystems. The overall electronic system consists of $1+p$ charges, where $p$ is the doping. At low dopings exactly one hole is localized per planar copper-oxygen unit, while upon increasing doping and temperature, the hole is gradually delocalized and becomes itinerant. Remarkably, the itinerant holes exhibit identical Fermi-liquid character across the cuprate phase diagram. This universality enables a simple count of carrier density and yields comprehensive understanding of the key features in the normal and superconducting state. A possible superconducting mechanism is presented, compatible with the key experimental facts. The base of this mechanism is the interaction of fast Fermi-liquid carriers with localized holes. A change in the microscopic nature of chemical bonding in the copper-oxide planes, from ionic to covalent, is invoked to explain the phase diagram of these fascinating compounds.

Dedicated to Prof. Karl Alex Müller on the occasion of his 95th birthday

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Collective nature of orbital excitations in layered cuprates in the absence of apical oxygens
• Signatures of two gaps in the spin susceptibility of a cuprate superconductor
• Characterization of two electronic subsystems in cuprates through optical conductivity
• Exploring d-Wave Magnetism in Cuprates from Oxygen Moments
• Transport properties and doping evolution of the Fermi surface in cuprates
• Lattice Quantum Geometry Controlling 118 K Multigap Superconductivity in Heavily Overdoped CuBa2Ca3Cu4O10+d
• Enhanced superconducting properties of Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+x}$ films with sub-50-nm thickness
• Hot spots along the Fermi contour of high-$T_c$ cuprates analyzed by $s$-$d$ exchange interaction
• Entanglement in the pseudogap regime of cuprate superconductors
• High-entropy magnetism of murunskite
• Valence Transition Theory of the Pressure-Induced Dimensionality Crossover in Superconducting Sr${}_{14-x}$Ca${}_x$Cu${}_{24}$O${}_{41}$
• Cuprates, Pnictides and Sulfosalts: Lessons in Functional Materials
• Real-space d-wave superconductivity from weak attraction