Scaling behavior in the optical conductivity of two-dimensional systems of strongly correlated electrons based on the U(1) slave-boson approach to thet−JHamiltonian

Abstract

The U(1) holon-pair boson theory of Lee and Salk [Phys. Rev. B 64, 052501 (2001)] is applied to investigate the quantum scaling behavior of optical conductivity in the two-dimensional systems of strongly correlated electrons. We examine the role of both the gauge field fluctuations and spin pair excitations on the $\ensuremath{\omega}∕T$ scaling behavior of the optical conductivity. It is shown that the gauge field fluctuations but not the spin pair excitations are responsible for the scaling behavior in the low-frequency region $\ensuremath{\omega}∕T⪡1$. The importance for the contribution of the nodal spinons to the Drude peak is discussed. It is shown that the $\ensuremath{\omega}∕T$ scaling behavior is manifest in the low-frequency region at low hole concentrations close to a critical concentration at which superconductivity arises at $T=0\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$.