Possible superconductivity from incoherent carriers in overdoped cuprates

Abstract

The non-superconducting state of overdoped cuprates is conjectured to be a strange metal comprising two distinct charge sectors, one governed by coherent quasiparticle excitations, the other seemingly incoherent and characterized by non-quasiparticle (Planckian) dissipation. The zero-temperature superfluid density n_s(0) of overdoped cuprates exhibits an anomalous depletion with increased hole doping p, falling to zero at the edge of the superconducting dome. Over the same doping range, the effective zero-temperature Hall number n_H(0) transitions from p to 1 + p. By taking into account the presence of these two charge sectors, we demonstrate that in the overdoped cuprates Tl2Ba2CuO6+\delta and La2-xSrxCuO4, the growth in n_s(0) as p is decreased from the overdoped side may be compensated by the loss of carriers in the coherent sector. Such a correspondence is contrary to expectations from conventional BCS theory and implies that superconductivity in overdoped cuprates emerges uniquely from the sector that exhibits incoherent transport in the normal state.