English

Correlation between unconventional superconductivity and strange metallicity revealed by operando superfluid density measurements

Superconductivity 2026-02-03 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

Strange-metal behavior has been observed in superconductors ranging from cuprates to pressurized nickelates, but its relationship to unconventional superconductivity remains elusive. Here, we perform operando superfluid density measurements on ion-gated FeSe films. We observe for the first time a synchronized evolution of superconducting condensate and the strange-metal phase with electron doping. A linear scaling between zero-temperature superfluid density and the strange-metal resistivity coefficient is further established, which nails down a direct link between the formation of superfluid in the superconducting state and the scattering of carriers in the strange-metal normal state. Remarkably, the scaling also applies for different iron-based and cuprate superconductors despite their distinct electronic structures and pairing symmetries. Such a correlation can be reproduced in a theoretical calculation on the two-dimensional Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model by considering a cooperative effect of quantum critical fluctuation and disorder. These findings indicate a fundamental principle governing superconducting condensation and strange-metal scattering in unconventional superconductors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.18515,
  title  = {Correlation between unconventional superconductivity and strange metallicity revealed by operando superfluid density measurements},
  author = {Ruozhou Zhang and Mingyang Qin and Chenyuan Li and Zhanyi Zhao and Zhongxu Wei and Juan Xu and Xingyu Jiang and Wenxin Cheng and Qiuyan Shi and Xuewei Wang and Jie Yuan and Yangmu Li and Qihong Chen and Tao Xiang and Subir Sachdev and Zi-Xiang Li and Kui Jin and Zhongxian Zhao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.18515},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

36 pages, 18 figures; Grant No. DMR-2245246 is removed