Charge segregation model for superconducting correlations in cuprates above T(c)

We present a theoretical framework for understanding recent transverse field muon spin rotation (TF-µSR) experiments on cuprate superconductors in terms of localized regions of phase-coherent pairing correlations above the bulk superconducting transition temperature Tc. The local regions of phase coherence are associated with a tendency toward charge ordering, a phenomenon found recently in hole-doped cuprates. We use the Cahn-Hilliard equation as a means to phenomenologically model the inhomogeneous charge distribution of the electron system observed experimentally. For this system we perform self-consistent superconducting calculations using the Bogoliubov-deGennes method. Within this context we explore two possible scenarios: (i) the magnetic field is diamagnetically screened by the sum of varying shielding currents of isolated small-sized superconducting domains. (ii) These domains become increasingly correlated by Josephson coupling as the temperature is lowered and the main response to the applied magnetic field is from the sum of all varying tunneling currents. The results indicate that these two approaches may be used to simulate the TF-µSR data but case (ii) yields better agreement.