Signatures of the electronic nature of pairing in high-T(c) superconductors obtained by non-equilibrium boson spectroscopy.

Understanding the pairing mechanism that gives rise to high-temperature superconductivity is one of the longest-standing problems of condensed-matter physics. Almost three decades after its discovery, even the question of whether or not phonons are involved remains a point of contention to some. Here we describe a technique for determining the spectra of bosons generated during the formation of Cooper pairs on recombination of hot electrons as they tunnel between the layers of a cuprate superconductor.