Strange Metal Behaviour and Spin Fluctuations in Overdoped La2-xSrxCuO4

The normal state of cuprate superconductors is highly anomalous. The electron quasiparticles show so-called "strange metal" behavior over a range of dopings. The resistivity shows an unusual ρ∝ T behavior over a wide temperature range (i.e. up to 500 K). This contrasts with the ρ ~T^2 variation expected from electron-electron scattering associated with a Fermi liquid or a higher power law expected from scattering from phonons. We believe this behavior is connected to spin fluctuations and have recently demonstrated that strongly temperature dependent spin fluctuations are present in the overdoped cuprate La2-xSrxCuO4 (x=0.22). Here we propose to test whether these spin fluctuation show an unusual form of quantum critical dynamical scaling with has been observed in heavy fermion systems that could explain the strange metal behavior.