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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 81 » Issue 21
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 4704–4707 (1998)

Quasiparticle Transport and Localization in High- Tc Superconductors

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T. Senthil, Matthew P. A. Fisher, Leon Balents*, and Chetan Nayak†
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-4030

Received 3 August 1998; published in the issue dated 23 November 1998

We present a theory of the effects of impurity scattering in dx2-y2 superconductors and their quantum disordered counterparts, based on a nonlinear-sigma-model formulation. We show the existence, in a quasi-two-dimensional system, of a novel spin-metal phase with a nonzero spin diffusion constant at zero temperature. With decreasing interlayer coupling, the system undergoes a quantum phase transition (in a new universality class) to a localized spin insulator. Experimental implications for spin and thermal transport in the high-temperature superconductors are discussed.

© 1998 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.4704
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.4704
PACS:
74.20.-z, 72.15.Rn

*Present address: Rm. 1D-368, Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs, 700 Mountain Ave., Murray Hill, NJ 07974.

†Present address: Physics Department, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547.

 
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