1 research outputs found
C-axis resistivity and high Tc superconductivity
Recently we had proposed a mechanism for the normal-state C-axis resistivity
of the high-T layered cuprates that involved blocking of the
single-particle tunneling between the weakly coupled planes by strong
intra-planar electron-electron scattering. This gave a C-axis resistivity that
tracks the ab-plane T-linear resistivity, as observed in the high-temperature
limit. In this work this mechanism is examined further for its implication for
the ground-state energy and superconductivity of the layered cuprates. It is
now argued that, unlike the single-particle tunneling, the tunneling of a
boson-like pair between the planes prepared in the BCS-type coherent trial
state remains unblocked inasmuch as the latter is by construction an eigenstate
of the pair annihilation operator. The resulting pair-delocalization along the
C-axis offers energetically a comparative advantage to the paired-up trial
state, and, thus stabilizes superconductivity. In this scheme the strongly
correlated nature of the layered system enters only through the blocking
effect, namely that a given electron is effectively repeatedly monitored
(intra-planarly scattered) by the other electrons acting as an environment, on
a time-scale shorter than the inter-planar tunneling time. Possible
relationship to other inter-layer pairing mechanisms proposed by several
workers in the field is also briefly discussed.Comment: typos in equations corrected, contents unchange