Reply to “Comment on ‘Superconductivity at low density near a ferroelectric quantum critical point: Doped SrTiO3”'

Abstract

In our paper [Wölfle and Balatsky, Phys. Rev. B 98, 104505 (2018)] we presented a microscopic theory of superconductivity for doped SrTiO3 by proposing two pairing mechanisms acting simultaneously with relative strength depending on the closeness to the ferroelectric quantum critical point. The first mechanism rests on the dynamically screened Coulomb interaction, and the second assumed a coupling to the soft transverse optical phonon. In their Comment Ruhman and Lee point out an error in our estimate of the deformation potential coupling to the soft mode. We agree that this type of coupling cannot explain the gigantic isotope effect observed experimentally, so that a different coupling mechanism needs to be found. As for the first pairing mechanism, Ruhman and Lee maintain the view expressed in their paper [Ruhman and Lee, Phys. Rev. B 94, 224515 (2016).] that the energy range over which the usual longitudinal optical-phonon mediated interaction operates is limited by the Fermi energy. We object to this view and in this Reply present evidence that the cutoff energy is much larger. In a weak-coupling system such as SrTiO3 the cutoff is given by the energy beyond which quasiparticles cease to be well defined.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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