Electron-hole dimers in parent phase of quasi-2D cuprates

The key feature of parent cuprates of the La$_2$CuO$_4$ type, in addition to their high ionic polarizability and closeness to polarization catastrophe, is identified as their instability against charge transfer that is accompanied by the formation of a system of metastable dipole-active Mott–Hubbard excitons, i.e., electron–hole (EH) dimers. This feature determines the behavior of cuprates upon nonisovalent substitution. Within the simplest model equivalent to a system of composite bosons, nonisovalent substitution shifts the phase equilibrium toward condensation of EH dimers and the formation of inhomogeneous EH liquid. To describe the electronic state of doped cuprates effectively, we propose to use the pseudospin $S$ = 1 formalism. It enables us to treat cardinally new charged states such as Anderson’s RVB phases. Recombination of EH dimers at a critically low energy of local and nonlocal correlations drives the system into the state of a Fermi liquid.