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Superconducting Puddles and "Colossal'' Effects in Underdoped Cuprates
Phenomenological models for the antiferromagnetic (AF) vs. d-wave
superconductivity competition in cuprates are studied using conventional Monte
Carlo techniques. The analysis suggests that cuprates may show a variety of
different behaviors in the very underdoped regime: local coexistence or
first-order transitions among the competing orders, stripes, or glassy states
with nanoscale superconducting (SC) puddles. The transition from AF to SC does
not seem universal. In particular, the glassy state leads to the possibility of
"colossal'' effects in some cuprates, analog of those in manganites. Under
suitable conditions, non-superconducting Cu-oxides could rapidly become
superconducting by the influence of weak perturbations that align the randomly
oriented phases of the SC puddles in the mixed state. Consequences of these
ideas for thin-film and photoemission experiments are discussed.Comment: RevTeX 4, revised expanded version, 8 pages, 8 figure
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