Reply to Comment on ‘The pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity: experimental constraints’

Abstract

In our recent paper entitled ‘The pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity: experimental constraints’ (Zhao 2011 Phys. Scr. 83 038302), we review some crucial experiments that place strong constraints on the microscopic pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates. In particular, we show that phonons rather than spin–fluctuation play a predominant role in the microscopic pairing mechanism. We further show that the intrinsic pairing symmetry in the bulk is not d-wave, but extended s-wave (having eight line nodes) in hole-doped cuprates and nodeless s-wave in electron-doped cuprates. In contrast, the author of the Comment (Plakida 2011 Phys. Scr. 83 038303) argues that our conclusions are unconvincing and even misleading. In response to the criticisms in the comment, we further show that our conclusions are well supported by experiments and that his criticisms show a lack of scientific ground.