The effect of collective spin-1 excitations on electronic spectra in high-Tc superconductors

Abstract

We review recent experimental and theoretical results on the interaction between single-particle excitations and collective spin excitations in the superconducting state of high-Tc cuprates. We concentrate on the traces, that sharp features in the magnetic excitation spectrum imprint in the spectra of single-particle excitations. The review gives in the first part an overview over the main corresponding experimental results obtained by inelastic neutron scattering, angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy and optical spectroscopy, concentrating on the so-called magnetic resonance mode and the electronic self-energy effects that can be associated with it. In the second part theoretical explanations for the observed effects are reviewed, with an emphasis on the interpretation of the magnetic resonance feature as spin-1 exciton below a gapped continuum, and on such effects in the single-particle electronic spectrum that can be assigned to the interaction with the spin-1 resonance feature. The influence of the gapped spin-fluctuation continuum on the high-energy part of the electronic spectrum is discussed.