Possible explanation of the pseudogap in high-temperature cuprates - art. no. 134518

A concept describing the origin and some properties of the "pseudogap phase " of high-T-c superconducting cuprates is proposed based on the author's id ea about resonant tunneling connection between the CuO2 layers. The superco nducting critical temperature in this picture is defined at low doping by e stablishment of a three-dimensional phase correlation between the layers, a nd at high doping by destruction of a d-wave superconductivity by disorder. The result is a nonmonotonic behavior of T-c with doping. The pseudogap ph ase is analyzed qualitatively on the basis of the recently discovered exist ence of vortices in this phase and one-dimensional fluctuations due to exte nded saddle points ("hot spots").