Relationship between Conductivity and Phase Coherence Length in Cuprates

The large (102–105) and strongly temperature dependent resistive anisotropy η=(σab/σc)1/2 of cuprates perhaps holds the key to understanding their normal state in-plane σab and out-of-plane σc conductivities. It can be shown that η is determined by the ratio of the phase coherence lenghts li in the respective directions: . In layered crystals in which the out-of-plane transport is incoherent, lc is fixed, equal to the interlayer spacing. As a result, the T-dependence of η is determined by that of lab, and vice versa, the in-plane phase coherence lenght can be obtained directly by measuring the resistive anisotropy. We present data for hole-doped YBa2Cu3Oy (6.3<y<6.9) and Y1-xPrxBa2O7-δ(0<x≤0.55) and show that σcb of crystals with different doping levels can be well described by a two parameter universal function of the in-plane phase coherence length. In the electron-doped Nd2-xCexCuO4-y, the dependence σab(η) indicates a crossover from incoherent transport in the c-direction.