High temperature superconductivity and electron-phonon coupling

The electron-phonon coupling in a copper oxide based high temperature superconductor has been estimated by taking the anisotropic crystal structure into account. From the Debye temperature of a superconducting material, information about the role of phonons in its superconducting mechanism can be investigated. The void-free acoustic Debye temperature, ΘD, of various cuprate high temperature superconductors estimated using the acoustic technique was found to be between 250 and 500 K. The electron-phonon coupling constant was estimated from the transition temperature Tc using the standard BCS theory and also the 2D van Hove scenario with related characteristic temperature. The van Hove scenario seems to explain high temperature superconductivity in the cuprates better than the standard three-dimensional BCS model