Thermodynamics of $T_{\rm c}$ suppression in far-overdoped Tl$_2$Ba$_2$CuO$_6$

Abstract

The physical origin of the suppression of superconductivity with hole doping in overdoped cuprates remains unclear. We measure the electronic specific heat of microgram-scale Tl$_2$Ba$_2$CuO$_6$ crystals and find sharp superconducting anomalies persisting far into the overdoped regime. A weak-coupling BCS-like framework incorporating the known Fermi surface and cation disorder quantitatively reproduces the observed anomalies for $T_{\rm c}=14$-$25$ K and their weak doping dependence. The results show $T_{\rm c}(p)$ to be driven predominantly by a smoothly decreasing pairing strength.