Electron–phonon interactions in HTSC cuprates

Phonons have been generally considered to be irrelevant to the high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates. However, such a bias is usually based upon the assumption of conventional electron–phonon coupling, while in the cuprates the coupling can be rather unconventional because of strong electron correlation. We present the results of our recent measurements of phonon dispersion in YBa 2Cu 3O 6+ x by inelastic neutron scattering. These suggest certain phonon modes interact strongly with electrons and are closely involved in the superconductivity phenomenon with possible contribution to pairing.