Unrelated BCS-like pairing pseudogap and critical superconducting transition temperature in various cuprate compounds

Abstract

The smooth evolution of the energy gap observed in the tunneling and angle-resolved photoemission spectra (ARPES) of high-[Formula: see text] cuprates with lowering the temperature from a pseudogap state above the critical temperature [Formula: see text] to a superconducting state below [Formula: see text], has been poorly interpreted as the evidence that the pseudogap must have the same origin as the superconducting order parameter, and therefore, must be related to [Formula: see text]. We argue that such an explanation of the tunneling gap and ARPES data is misleading. We show that the BCS-like energy gap (or pseudogap) opening in the electronic excitation spectrum of underdoped-to-overdoped cuprates at a characteristic temperature [Formula: see text] and the true superconducting order parameter appearing only at [Formula: see text] are unrelated. The superconducting phenomenon in unconventional cuprate superconductors is fundamentally different from the BCS-like pairing of fermionic quasiparticles, and the superconducting transition temperature [Formula: see text] is not determined by the BCS-like gap formation. The unusual superconducting order parameter in these high-[Formula: see text] materials appears at [Formula: see text] and coexists with the BCS-like gap (or pseudogap) below [Formula: see text].