Unusual switch from low-temperature T-quadratic resistivity in the underdoped pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors to low-temperature T-linear resistivity in the overdoped strange-metal phase

The transport experiments demonstrate a dramatic switch from the low-temperature T-linear resistivity in the overdoped strange-metal phase to the T-quadratic resistivity in the underdoped pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors, however, a consensus on the origin of this switch is still lacking. Here the low-temperature resistivity in the underdoped pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors is investigated using the Boltzmann transport equation. The low-temperature resistivity originates from the electron umklapp scattering mediated by the spin excitation. However, the dominant contribution to the resistivity mainly comes from the antinodal umklapp scattering. In particular, a low temperature Tscale scales with Δ²ₚ in the underdoped regime due to the opening of a momentum-dependent spin pseudogap, where Δₚ is the minimal umklapp vector at the antinode. Notably, this Tscale as a function of doping presents a similar behavior of the antinodal spin pseudogap crossover temperature, i.e., Tscale decreases with the increase of doping in the underdoped regime, and then is reduced to a very low temperature in the overdoped regime. In the underdoped regime, the resistivity is T-quadratic in the low temperatures below Tscale with the strength of the T-quadratic resistivity that weakens as the doping is raised. However, in the overdoped regime, the resistivity is T-linear in the low temperatures above Tscale. The result in this paper together with the recent study on the electrical transport in the overdoped regime therefore show that the electron Umklapp scattering from a spin excitation responsible for the low-temperature T-linear resistivity in the overdoped strange-metal phase naturally produces the low-temperature T-quadratic resistivity in the underdoped pseudogap phase resulting from the opening of a momentum dependent spin pseudogap.