The physics of inhomogeneous striped superconductors

We present a minimal model of a doped Mott insulator that simultaneously su pports antiferromagnetic stripes and d-wave superconductivity. At the unres tricted mean-field level, the various phases of the cuprates, including wea k and strong pseudogap phases, and two different types of superconductivity in the underdoped and the overdoped regimes, find a natural interpretation . We argue that on the underdoped side, the superconductor is intrinsically inhomogeneous - striped nanoscale coexistence of superconductivity and mag netism - and global phase coherence is achieved through Josephson-like coup ling of the superconducting stripes. On the overdoped side, the state is ov erall homogeneous and the superconductivity is of the classical BCS type. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.