  We take advantage of the connection between the free carrier optical
conductivity and the glue function in the normal state, to reconstruct from the
infrared optical conductivity the glue-spectrum of ten different high-Tc
cuprates revealing a robust peak in the 50-60 meV range and a broad con- tinuum
at higher energies for all measured charge carrier concentrations and
temperatures up to 290 K. We observe that the strong coupling formalism
accounts fully for the known strong temperature dependence of the optical
spectra of the high Tc cuprates, except for strongly underdoped samples. We
observe a correlation between the doping trend of the experimental glue spectra
and the critical temperature. The data obtained on the overdoped side of the
phase diagram conclusively excludes the electron-phonon coupling as the main
source of superconducting pairing.
