Pseudogap-induced anisotropic suppression of electronic Raman response in cuprate superconductors

Abstract

It has become clear that the anomalous properties of cuprate superconductors are intimately related to the formation of a pseudogap. Within the framework of the kinetic-energy-driven superconducting mechanism, the effect of the pseudogap on the electronic Raman response of cuprate superconductors in the superconducting-state is studied by taking into account the interplay between the superconducting gap and pseudogap. It is shown that the low-energy spectra almost rise as the cube of energy in the B_{1g} channel and linearly with energy in the B_{2g} channel. However, the pseudogap is strongly anisotropic in momentum space, where the magnitude of the pseudogap around the nodes is smaller than that around the antinodes, which leads to that the low-energy spectral weight of the B_{1g} spectrum is suppressed heavily by the pseudogap, while the pseudogap has a more modest effect on the electronic Raman response in the B_{2g} orientation.