Two energy scales and close relationship between the pseudogap and superconductivity in underdoped cuprate superconductors

Abstract

By measuring the low temperature specific heat, the low energy quasi-particle excitation has been derived and analyzed in systematically doped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ single crystals. The Volovik's relation predicted for a d-wave superconductor has been well demonstrated in wide doping regime, showing a robust evidence for the d-wave pairing symmetry. Furthermore the nodal gap slope $v_\Delta$ of the superconducting gap is derived and is found to follow the same doping dependence of the pseudogap obtained from ARPES and tunnelling measurement. This strongly suggests a close relationship between the pseudogap and superconductivity. Taking the entropy conservation into account, we argue that the ground state of the pseudogap phase should have Fermi arcs with finite density of states at zero K, and the transport data show that it behaves like an insulator due to probably weak localization. A nodal metal picture for the pseudogap phase cannot interpret the data. Based on the Fermi arc picture for the pseudogap phase it is found that the superconducting energy scale or $T_c$ in underdoped regime is governed by both the maximum gap and the spectral weight from the Fermi arcs. This suggests that there are two energy scales: superconducting energy scale and the pseudogap. The superconductivity may be formed by the condensation of Fermi arc quasiparticles through pairing by exchanging virtue bosons.