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Spectroscopic evidence for Fermi liquid-like energy and temperature dependence of the relaxation rate in the pseudogap phase of the cuprates

Cuprate high-Tc superconductors on the Mott-insulating side of "optimal doping" (with respect to the highest Tc's) exhibit enigmatic behavior in the non-superconducting state. Near optimal doping the transport and spectroscopic properties are unlike those of a Landau-Fermi liquid. For carrier concentrations below optimal doping a pseudogap removes quasi-particle spectral weight from parts of the Fermi surface, and causes a break-up of the Fermi surface into disconnected nodal and anti-nodal sectors. Here we show that the near-nodal excitations of underdoped cuprates obey Fermi liquid behavior. Our optical measurements reveal that the dynamical relaxation rate 1/tau(omega, T) collapses on a universal function proportional to (hbar omega)^2+(1.5 pi k_B T)^2. Hints at possible Fermi liquid behavior came from the recent discovery of quantum oscillations at low temperature and high magnetic field in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+d and YBa2Cu4O8, from the observed T^2-dependence of the DC ({; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; \omega}; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; =0) resistivity for both overdoped and underdoped cuprates, and from the two-fluid analysis of nuclear magnetic resonance data. However, the direct spectroscopic determination of the energy dependence of the life-time of the excitations -provided by our measurements- has been elusive up to now. This observation defies the standard lore of non-Fermi liquid physics in high Tc cuprates on the underdoped side of the phase diagram.

Cuprate high-Tc superconductors; Landau-Fermi liquid; pseudogap

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