Condensed Matter Physics Seminar

Charge Stripes and Superconductivity in Hole-Doped Cuprates

Dr. John Tranquada
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Higgins 235, 3pm

Charge stripes represent a kind of order observed in La_2-xBa_xCuO₄ that tends to compete with superconductivity; nevertheless, it has been proposed that dynamic stripe correlations may actually be important for high-temperature superconductivity. Inelastic neutron scattering studies have recently shown that the magnetic excitation spectrum of the stripe-ordered state is quite similar to that found in good superconductors, such as YBa₂Cu₃O_6+x. New photoemission and optical conductivity studies indicate that the stripe-ordered state retains metallic conductivity, at low frequencies, similar to that in the normal state of cuprates. I will discuss these experimental results and their relevance to understanding superconductivity in the cuprates.