Doping-induced inhomogeneity in high-Tc superconductors

Doping and disorder are inseparable in the superconducting cuprates. Assuming the simplest possible disordered doping, we construct a semiphenomenological model and analyze its experimental consequences. Among the affected experimental quantities are the ARPES spectra and thermodynamic properties. From our model we make a prediction for the width of the local superconducting gap distribution with the only experimentally unknown parameter being the superconducting correlation length. Thus, our model provides a direct way of determining the superconducting correlation length. Thus, our model provides a direct way of determining the superconducting correlation length from a known experimental gap distribution. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.