Abstract
We discuss the high-temperature superconductors in a regime where the antiferromagnetic (AF) correlation length is only a couple of lattice spacings. In the model proposed here, these short-range AF fluctuations play an essential role in the dressing of the carriers, but the attraction needed for superconductivity arises from a transverse phonon oxygen mode with a finite buckling angle as it appears in . A simple fermion-phonon model analog to the Holstein model is introduced to account for this effect. We argue that the model has a -wave superconducting ground state. The critical temperature () and the O-isotope effect coefficient () versus hole density () are in qualitative agreement with experiments for the cuprates. The minimum (maximum) of at optimal doping is caused by a large peak in the density of states of holes dressed by AF fluctuations, as discussed in previous van Hove scenarios.
- Received 8 September 1995
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.53.R2987
©1996 American Physical Society