Vibronic Mechanism of High Tc Superconductivity

Abstract

When phonons strongly mix with electron charge fluctuations with low frequencies, the phonon mediated attractive interaction between electrons is strongly enhanced. The occurrence of the mixing has been indicated by the neutron scattering experimental results that the dispersion of the in-plane Cu–O bond-stretching mode in the high Tc cuprate superconductors is strongly softened near the zone boundary. We propose that the phonon mediated attractive interaction strongly enhanced by the vibronic effect can form a basis for the phonon mechanism of high temperature superconductivity. With the Eliashberg theory and with the electronic structure determined by ARPES and the electronic dielectric function obtained by the softened dispersion of the in-pane Cu–O stretching mode, we calculated the transition temperature and the order parameter at the transition temperature. The order parameter is of the d(x2-y2) symmetry and the transition temperature is well in excess of 100 K.