We revisit the interlayer tunneling theory of high temperaturesuperconductors and formulate it as a mechanism by which the strikingsystematics of the transition temperature within a given homologous series canbe understood. We pay attention not only to the enhancement of pairing, as wasoriginally suggested, but also to the role of competing order parameters thattend to suppress superconductivity, and to the charge imbalance betweeninequivalent outer and inner CuO2 planes in a unit cell. Calculations based ona generalized Ginzburg-Landau theory yield results that bear robust andremarkable resemblance to experimental observations.
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