SPIN EXCITATIONS AND SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IN CUPRATE OXIDE AND HEAVY ELECTRON SUPERCONDUCTORS

The experimental evidence for a temperature-dependent build up of antiferromagnetic correlations between Cu2+ planar spins in the normal state of cuprate oxide superconductors is reviewed, and a phenomenological one-component model, developed in collaboration with A. Millis and H. Monien, which appears capable of providing a quantitative account of existing experiments is described. A scaling law which relates the superconducting transaction temperature to the measurable spin-spin correlation length is proposed. The NMR experimental results in the superconducting state are shown to be consistent with d-wave pairing in a strong coupling superconductor. Comparison of the results of NMR experiments on the cuprate oxide and heavy electron superconductors reveals striking similarities. I conclude that the cuprate oxide superconductors are unconventional superconductors in which the superconductivity is of (primarily) electronic origin and results from an attractive interaction of antiferromagnetic character between itinerant quasiparticles in the spin antisymmetric channel, and discuss similarities and differences between cuprate oxide and heavy electron systems. © 1990.