Abstract

As carriers are introduced into the cuprates (by doping the insulating "parent" compounds) spectral weight appears in the optical spectrum at photon energies below the charge-transfer gap. This spectral weight increases as the doping level increases. Magnetic penetration depth measurements have shown a good correlation between superfluid density and superconducting transition temperature in the underdoped-to-optimally-doped part of the phase diagram. Optical measurements allow independent determination of the total doping-induced spectral weight and the superfluid density. These measurements, made on cuprates with transition temperatures from 40 to 110 K, find that in optimally doped materials only about 20% of the doping-induced spectral weight joins the superfluid. The rest remains in finite-frequency, midinfrared absorption. In underdoped materials, the superfluid fraction is even smaller. This result implies extremely strong coupling for these superconductors.

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