25 research outputs found
Electron-hole asymmetry is the key to superconductivity
In a solid, transport of electricity can occur via negative electrons or via
positive holes. In the normal state of superconducting materials experiments
show that transport is usually dominated by
. Instead, in the superconducting state experiments show that the
supercurrent is always carried by .
These experimental facts indicate that electron-hole asymmetry plays a
fundamental role in superconductivity, as proposed by the theory of hole
superconductivity.Comment: Presented at the New3SC-4 meeting, San Diego, Jan. 16-21 2003; to be
published in Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Why holes are not like electrons. II. The role of the electron-ion interaction
In recent work, we discussed the difference between electrons and holes in
energy band in solids from a many-particle point of view, originating in the
electron-electron interaction, and argued that it has fundamental consequences
for superconductivity. Here we discuss the fact that there is also a
fundamental difference between electrons and holes already at the single
particle level, arising from the electron-ion interaction. The difference
between electrons and holes due to this effect parallels the difference due to
electron-electron interactions: {\it holes are more dressed than electrons}. We
propose that superconductivity originates in 'undressing' of carriers from
electron-electron and electron-ion interactions, and that both aspects
of undressing have observable consequences.Comment: Continuation of Phys.Rev.B65, 184502 (2002) = cond-mat/0109385 (2001
Superconductivity from Undressing
Photoemission experiments in high cuprates indicate that quasiparticles
are heavily 'dressed' in the normal state, particularly in the low doping
regime. Furthermore these experiments show that a gradual undressing occurs
both in the normal state as the system is doped and the carrier concentration
increases, as well as at fixed carrier concentration as the temperature is
lowered and the system becomes superconducting. A similar picture can be
inferred from optical experiments. It is argued that these experiments can be
simply understood with the single assumption that the quasiparticle dressing is
a function of the local carrier concentration. Microscopic Hamiltonians
describing this physics are discussed. The undressing process manifests itself
in both the one-particle and two-particle Green's functions, hence leads to
observable consequences in photoemission and optical experiments respectively.
An essential consequence of this phenomenology is that the microscopic
Hamiltonians describing it break electron-hole symmetry: these Hamiltonians
predict that superconductivity will only occur for carriers with hole-like
character, as proposed in the theory of hole superconductivity