Strong coupling theory of the interlayer tunneling model for high temperature superconductors

Abstract

The interlayer pair tunneling model of Anderson et al. is generalized to include the strong coupling effects associated with in-plane interactions. The equations for the superconducting transition temperature T_{c} are solved numerically for several models of electron-optical phonon coupling. The nonmagnetic in-plane impurity scattering suppresses T_{c} in all cases considered, and it is possible to obtain a fair agreement with experiments for a reasonable choice of parameters. For the anisotropic electron-phonon coupling proposed by Song and Annett we find that the interlayer pair tunneling can stabilize the d_{x^2-y^2}-wave superconducting state with a high T_{c}. Moreover, in this case there is a possibility of an impurity induced crossover from the d$_{x^2-y^2}$-wave state stabilized by the interlayer tunneling to the s-wave state at a low impurity concentration. We also calculate the isotope effect associated with the in-plane oxygen optic mode and its dependence on the strength of the interlayer pair tunneling. Small positive values of the isotope exponent are obtained for strengths of pair tunneling that give high transition temperatures.