Quantum criticality in cuprate superconductors revealed by optical conductivity measurement

Abstract

The ubiquitous temperature ($T$)-linear behaviour of the transport scattering rate in the normal state of strongly correlated electron systems is called strange metallicity \cite{zaanen:2004,phillips:2022,hartnoll:2022,chowdhury:2022,yuan:2022}. Although strange metallicity is crucial to understanding superconductivity in correlated electron systems, its origin remains elusive to date \cite{hussey:2023}. Here, we present the doping-, temperature-, and frequency ($\omega$)-dependent transport properties of overdoped Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ in a wide doping range of 0.183 to 0.231. We observe that the optical scattering rate and effective mass exhibit an $\omega/T$ scaling behaviour at a critical doping of $p_{c} \simeq$ 0.231. Away from the critical doping, the $\omega/T$ scaling behaviour is destroyed below a doping-dependent crossover temperature $T_\Delta(p) \sim |p-p_{c}|^{0.24}$. Furthermore, the optical coherence mode (OCM) observed within the superconducting dome rapidly broadens and eventually disappears as the critical doping is approached. The emergence of the $\omega/T$ scaling behaviour of the transport scattering rate and broadening of the OCM near the critical doping strongly suggests that strange metallic behaviour is caused by quantum critical fluctuations. Our results provide compelling spectroscopic evidence for quantum criticality in cuprate superconductors.