Bosonic spectral density of epitaxial thin-film La1.83Sr0.17CuO4 superconductors from infrared conductivity measurements.

We use optical spectroscopy to investigate the excitations responsible for the structure in the optical self-energy of thin epitaxial films of La(1.83)Sr(0.17)CuO(4). Using Eliashberg's formalism to invert the optical spectra we extract the electron-boson spectral function and find that at low temperature it has a two component structure closely matching the spin excitation spectrum recently measured by magnetic neutron scattering. We contrast the temperature evolution of the spectral density and the two-peak behavior in La(2-Sr(x)CuO(4) with another high temperature superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+delta). The bosonic spectral functions of the two materials account for the low T(c) of LSCO as compared to Bi-2212.