High-Temperature Superconductivity from Finite-Range Attractive Interaction

Physical Review Letters, vol. 135, pp. 186502

Abstract

In this Letter we consider D-dimensional interacting Fermi liquids, and demonstrate that an attractive interaction with a finite range R_{s} that is much greater than the Fermi wavelength λ_{F} breaks the conventional BCS theory of superconductivity. In contrast to the BCS prediction of a finite superconducting gap for all attractive contact interactions, we show that a finite-range interaction does not induce a superconducting gap. Instead, the pair susceptibility develops a power-law singularity at zero momentum and zero frequency signaling quantum critical behavior without long-range ordering. Starting from this, we show that superconductivity can be stabilized by adding a short-range attractive interaction, which is always present in real electronic systems. As an example, we consider a layered quasi-two-dimensional material with attractive electron-electron interactions mediated by optical phonons. We demonstrate a dome shape of the critical temperature T_{c} versus doping, strongly suppressed isotope effect, and a weak dependence of the optimal doping and maximal T_{c}^{*}∼0.1E_{F} on the interaction range at R_{s}≫λ_{F}, E_{F} is the Fermi energy. We believe that these results could be relevant to high-temperature superconductors.

Authors 5

1. Dmitry Miserev

   University of Basel

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Basel

   Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland

2. Joel Hutchinson

   University of Basel

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Basel

   Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland

3. Herbert Schoeller Aachen

   Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University and JARA–Fundamentals of Future Information Technology

4. Jelena Klinovaja

   University of Basel

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Basel

   Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland

5. Daniel Loss

   King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals · University of Basel

   Affiliation as printed

   Interdisciplinary Research Center (IRC) for Advanced Quantum Computing

   King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

   University of Basel

   Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland

   Interdisciplinary Research Center (IRC) for Advanced Quantum Computing, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia