We discuss the possibility that the strain field introduced by the structural supermodulation in Bi-2212 and certain other cuprate materials may modulate the superconducting pairing interaction. We calculate the amplitude of this effect, visible in scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments, and thereby relate a change in the local superconducting gap with the change in the local dopant displacements induced by the supermodulation. In principle, since this modulation is periodic, sufficiently accurate x-ray measurements or ab initio calculations should enable one to determine which atomic displacements enhance pairing and therefore T_c.
@article{arxiv.0704.3673,
title = {Superconducting gap variations induced by structural supermodulation in BSCCO},
author = {Brian M. Andersen and P. J. Hirschfeld and James A. Slezak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0704.3673},
year = {2009}
}