Evidence for a superconducting origin of prominent features of the in-plane infrared response of underdoped cuprates and implications of their persistence above Tc

الأصل · EN

We report on results of our analysis of published experimental data of the in-plane infrared response of two representative underdoped high-Tc cuprate superconductors, focusing on a characteristic gap feature in the spectra of the real part of the conductivity and the corresponding structures of the memory function, that develop below a temperature Tons considerably higher than Tc. Several arguments based on comparisons of the data with results of our calculations are provided indicating that the features are due to superconductivity and that Tons marks the onset of a precursor superconducting phase.