The experimentally observed difference of superconducting critical temperature $T_{ c}$ in hole-doped cuprates is studied by using an extended interlayer coupling model for layered d-wave superconductors. We show that the change of the maximum $T_{ c}$ from series to series is determined by the next nearest neighboring hopping $t^{ \prime}$, while the difference of the maximum $T_{ c}$ among the compounds in a homogeneous series is controlled by the interlayer pairing strength. Our results provide helpful guidelines in the search for new high-$T_{ c}$ superconductors.
Categories: cond-mat.supr-con cond-mat.str-el