Self-generated electronic heterogeneity and quantum glassiness in the high temperature superconductors

Abstract

We present a systematic study of the spin and charge dynamics of copper oxide superconductors as a function of carrier concentration $x$. Our results portray a coherent physical picture, which reveals a quantum critical point at optimum doping ($x=x_{opt}$), and the formation of an inhomogeneous glassy state at $x < x_{opt}$. This mechanism is argued to arise as an intrinsic property of doped Mott insulators, and therefore to be largely independent of material quality and level of disorder.