Microscopic Scenario for Striped Superconductors

Abstract

We argue that the superconducting state found in high-$T_c$ cuprates is inhomogeneous with a corresponding inhomogeneous superfluid density. We introduce two classes of microscopic models which capture the magnetic and superconducting properties of these strongly correlated materials. We start from a generalized t-J model, in which appropriate inhomogeneous terms mimic stripes. We find that inhomogeneous interactions that break magnetic symmetries are essential to induce substantial pair binding of holes in the thermodynamic limit. We argue that this type of model reproduces the ARPES and neutron scattering data seen experimentally.