Parabolic Scaling in Overdoped Cuprate: a Statistical Field Theory Approach

Abstract

Recently, Bozovic et al. reported that [Nature 536, 309-311 (2016)], in the overdoped side of the single-crystal $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$ (LSCO) films, the transition temperature $T_c$ and zero-temperature superfluid phase stiffness $\rho_s(0)$ will obey a two-class scaling law: $T_c=\gamma \cdot \sqrt{\rho_s(0)}$ for $T_c \leq T_Q$ and $T_c \propto \rho_s(0)$ for $T_c \geq T_M$, where $\gamma=(4.2 \pm 0.5) K^{1/2} $, $T_Q \approx 15 K$, and $T_M \approx 12 K$. They further pointed out that the parabolic scaling observed in the highly overdoped side indicates a quantum phase transition from a superconductor to a normal metal. In this paper, we propose a quantum partition function (QPF) for zero-temperature Cooper pairs, by which one can effectively distinguish between mean-field and quantum critical behaviors. We theoretically show that the two-class scaling law can be exactly derived by using the QPF, and the theoretical values of $\gamma$, $T_Q$, and $T_M$ are well in accordance with experimental measure values. Our analyses indicate that the linear scaling $T_c \propto \rho_s(0)$ is a mean-field behavior, while the parabolic scaling $T_c=\gamma \cdot \sqrt{\rho_s(0)}$ is a quantum critical behavior.