1,172 research outputs found
Magnetoresistance in Heavily Underdoped YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x}: Antiferromagnetic Correlations and Normal-State Transport
We report on a contrasting behavior of the in-plane and out-of-plane
magnetoresistance (MR) in heavily underdoped antiferromagnetic (AF)
YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x} (x<0.37). The out-of-plane MR (I//c) is positive over most of
the temperature range and shows a sharp increase, by about two orders of
magnitude, upon cooling through the Neel temperature T_N. A contribution
associated with the AF correlations is found to dominate the out-of-plane MR
behavior for H//c from far above T_N, pointing to the key role of spin
fluctuations in the out-of-plane transport. In contrast, the transverse
in-plane MR (I//a(b);H//c) appears to be small and smooth through T_N, implying
that the development of the AF order has little effect on the in-plane
resistivity.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.Let
Sum rules and electrodynamics of high-Tc cuprates in the pseudogap state
We explore connections between the electronic density of states (DOS) in a
conducting system and the frequency dependence of the scattering rate
inferred from infrared spectroscopy. We show that changes in
the DOS upon the development of energy gaps can be reliably tracked through the
examination of the spectra using the sum rules discussed in
the text. Applying this analysis to the charge dynamics in high- cuprates
we found radically different trends in the evolution of the DOS in the
pseudogap state and in the superconducting state.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Normal-state resistivity anisotropy in underdoped RBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x} crystals
We have revealed new features in the out-of-plane resistivity rho_c of
heavily underdoped RBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x} (R=Tm,Lu) single crystals, which give
evidence for two distinct mechanisms contributing the c-axis transport. We have
observed a crossover towards "metal-like" (d rho_c/d T > 0) behavior at the
temperature T_m which quickly increases with decreasing doping. The
"metal-like" conductivity contribution dominates at T < T_m and provides a
saturation of the resistivity anisotropy, rho_c / rho_{ab}. The
antiferromagnetic ordering is found to block this "metal-like" part of the
c-axis conductivity and complete decoupling of CuO_2 planes, which may be the
reason of superconductivity disappearance.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages including 4 eps figures. To be published in
Phys.Rev.Let
Coherence, incoherence and scaling along the c axis of YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x}
The optical properties of single crystals of YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x} have been
examined along the c axis above and below the critical temperature (T_c) for a
wide range of oxygen dopings. The temperature dependence of the
optically-determined value of the dc conductivity (\sigma_{dc}) in the normal
state suggests a crossover from incoherent (hopping-type) transport at lower
oxygen dopings (x \lesssim 0.9) to more coherent anisotropic three-dimensional
behavior in the overdoped (x \approx 0.99) material at temperatures close to
T_c. The assumption that superconductivity occurs along the c axis through the
Josephson effect yields a scaling relation between the strength of the
superconducting condensate (\rho_{s,c}, a measure of the number of
superconducting carriers), the critical temperature, and the normal-state
c-axis value for \sigma_{dc} just above T_c; \rho_{s,c} \propto \sigma_{dc}
T_c. This scaling relation is observed along the c axis for all oxygen dopings,
as well as several other cuprate materials. However, the agreement with the
Josephson coupling model does not necessarily imply incoherent transport,
suggesting that these materials may indeed be tending towards coherent behavior
at the higher oxygen dopings.Comment: Six pages with four figures and one tabl
Nanoscale phase separation in films: evidence for the texture driven optical anisotropy
The IR optical absorption (0.1-1.5 eV) in the films
on LAO substrate exhibits the drastic temperature evolution of the spectral
weight evidencing the insulator to metal transition. Single crystal films were
found to reveal strong linear dichroism with anomalous spectral oscillations
and fairly weak temperature dependence. Starting from the concept of phase
separation, we develop the effective medium model to account for these effects.
The optical anisotropy of the films is attributed to the texturization of the
ellipsoidal inclusions of the quasimetal phase caused by a mismatch of the film
and substrate and the twin texture of the latter.Comment: 6 pages, 5 Encapsulated PostScript figures, uses RevTeX
Conductivity of CuO-Chains: Disorder versus Electron-Phonon Coupling
The optical conductivity of the CuO-chains, a subsystem of the 1-2-3
materials, is dominated by a broad peak in the mid-infrared (eV), and a slowly falling high-frequency tail. The 1D --model is
proposed as the relevant low-energy Hamiltonian describing the intrinsic
electronic structure of the CuO-chains. However, due to charge-spin
decoupling, this model alone cannot reproduce the observed \sw. We consider
two additional scattering mechanisms: (i) Disregarding the not so crucial spin
degrees of freedom, the inclusion of strong potential disorder yields excellent
agreement with experiment, but suffers from the unreasonable value of the
disorder strength necessary for the fit. (ii) Moderately strong polaronic
electron-phonon coupling to the mode involving Cu(1)-O(4) stretching, can be
modeled within a 1D Holstein Hamiltonian of spinless fermions. Using a
variational approximation for the phonon Hilbert space, we diagonalize the
Hamiltonian exactly on finite lattices. As a result of the experimental hole
density , the chains can exhibit strong charge-density-wave (CDW)
correlations, driven by phonon-mediated polaron-polaron interactions. In the
vicinity of half filling, charge motion is identified as arising from moving
domain walls, \ie defects in the CDW. Incorporating the effect of vacancy
disorder by choosing open boundary conditions, good agreement with the
experimental spectra is found. In particular, a high-frequency tail arises as a
consequence of the polaron-polaron interactions.Comment: 42 pages, ETH-TH/93-31 (Postscript
Normal-state magnetic susceptibility in a bilayer cuprate
The magnetic susceptibility of high-T_c superconductors is investigated in
the normal state using a coupled bilayer model. While this model describes in a
natural way the normal-state pseudogaps seen in c-axis optical conductivity on
underdoped samples, it predicts a weakly increasing susceptibility with
decreasing temperature and cannot explain the magnetic pseudogaps exhibited in
NMR measurements. Our result, together with some experimental evidence suggest
that the mechanism governing the c-axis optical pseudogap is different from
that for the plane magnetic pseudogap.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Doping Dependence of Anisotropic Resistivities in Trilayered Superconductor Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+delta (Bi-2223)
The doping dependence of the themopower, in-plane resistivity rho_ab(T),
out-of-plane resistivity rho_c(T), and susceptibility has been systematically
measured for high-quality single crystal Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+delta. We found that
the transition temperature Tc and pseudogap formation temperature T_rho_c*,
below which rho_c shows a typical upturn, do not change from their optimum
values in the "overdoped" region, even though doping actually proceeds. This
suggests that, in overdoped region, the bulk is determined by the always
underdoped inner plane, which have a large superconducting gap, while the
carriers are mostly doped in the outer planes, which have a large phase
stiffness.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. to be published in PR
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