332 research outputs found
On the occurrence of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior in highly anisotropic cuprate superconductors
The conflicting observations in the highly anisotropic Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x,
vidence for BKT behavior emerging from magnetization data and smeared 3D-xy
behavior, stemming form the temperature dependence of the magnetic in-plane
penetration depth are traced back to the rather small ratio, gsic+/gsic-=0.45,
between the c-axis correlation length probed above (+) and below (-) Tc, and
the comparatively large anisotropy. The latter leads to critical amplitudes
gsic0+,-which are substantially smaller than the distance between two CuO2
double layers. In combination with gsic+/gsic-=0.45 and in contrast to the
situation below Tc the c-axis correlation length gsic exceeds the distance
between two CuO2 double layers very close to Tc only. Below this narrow
temperature regime where 3D-xy fluctuations dominate, there is then an extended
temperature regime where the units with two CuO2 double layers are nearly
uncoupled so that 2D thermal fluctuations dominate and BKT features are
observable.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Phenomenology of a-axis and b-axis charge dynamics from microwave spectroscopy of highly ordered YBa2Cu3O6.50 and YBa2Cu3O6.993
Extensive measurements of the microwave conductivity of highly pure and
oxygen-ordered \YBCO single crystals have been performed as a means of
exploring the intrinsic charge dynamics of a d-wave superconductor. Broadband
and fixed-frequency microwave apparatus together provide a very clear picture
of the electrodynamics of the superconducting condensate and its thermally
excited nodal quasiparticles. The measurements reveal the existence of very
long-lived excitations deep in the superconducting state, as evidenced by sharp
cusp-like conductivity spectra with widths that fall well within our
experimental bandwidth. We present a phenomenological model of the microwave
conductivity that captures the physics of energy-dependent quasiparticle
dynamics in a d-wave superconductor which, in turn, allows us to examine the
scattering rate and oscillator strength of the thermally excited quasiparticles
as functions of temperature. Our results are in close agreement with the
Ferrell-Glover-Tinkham sum rule, giving confidence in both our experiments and
the phenomenological model. Separate experiments for currents along the and directions of detwinned crystals allow us to isolate the role
of the CuO chain layers in \YBCO, and a model is presented that incorporates
both one-dimensional conduction from the chain electrons and two-dimensional
transport associated with the \cuplane plane layers.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure
Superconducting Magnetization above the Irreversibility Line in Tl2Ba2CuO6
Piezolever torque magnetometry has been used to measure the magnetization of
superconducting Tl2Ba2CuO6. Three crystals with different levels of oxygen
overdoping were investigated in magnetic fields up to 10 Tesla. In all cases,
the magnetization above the irreversibility line was found to depart from the
behaviour M ~ ln(Hc2/H) of a simple London-like vortex liquid. In particular,
for a strongly overdoped (Tc = 15K) crystal, the remnant superconducting order
above the irreversibility line is characterized by a linear diamagnetic
response (M ~ H) that persists well above Tc and also up to the highest field
employed.Comment: RevTeX, 11 pages, 7 encapsulated PostScript figures, submitted to
Physical Review
Systematic behaviour of the in-plane penetration depth in d-wave cuprates
We report the temperature T and oxygen concentration dependences of the
penetration depth of grain-aligned YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta} with \delta= 0.0, 0.3
and 0.43. The values of the in-plane \lambda_{ab}(0) and out-of-plane
\lambda_{c}(0) penetration depths, the low temperature linear term in
\lambda_{ab}(T), and the ratio \lambda_{c}(0) /\lambda_{ab}(T) were found to
increase with increasing . The systematic changes of the linear term in
\lambda_{ab}(T) with T_c found here and in recent work on HgBa_2Ca_{n-1}
Cu_nO_{2n+2+\delta} (n = 1 and 3) are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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