Linear and quadratic temperature dependence of electronic specific heat for cuprates

Abstract

We model cuprate superconductors as an infinite layered lattice structure which contains a fluid of paired and unpaired fermions. Paired fermions, which are the superconducting carriers, are considered as noninteracting zero spin bosons with a linear energy-momentum dispersion relation, which coexist with the unpaired fermions in a series of almost two dimensional slabs stacked in their perpendicular direction. The inter-slab penetrable planes are simulated by a Dirac comb potential in the direction in which the slabs are stacked, while paired and unpaired electrons (or holes) are free to move parallel to the planes. Paired fermions condense at a BEC critical temperature at which a jump in their specific heat is exhibited, whose values are assumed equal to the superconducting critical temperature and the specific heat jump experimentally reported for YBaCuO7−x to fix our model parameters: the plane impenetrability and the fraction of superconducting charge carrier. We straightforwardly obtain, near and under the superconducting temperature Tc, the linear (γeT ) and the quadratic (αT 2 ) electronic specific heat terms, with γe and α of the order of the latest experimental values reported. After calculating the lattice specific heat (phonons) C l from the phonon spectrum data obtained from inelastic neutron scattering experiments, and added to the electronic (paired plus unpaired) Ce component, we qualitatively reproduce the total specific heat below Tc, whose curve lies close to the experimental one, reproducing its exact value at Tc.