Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Technology, Physical Sciences, Engineering, Multidisciplinary, Materials Science, Multidisciplinary, Materials Science, Coatings & Films, Optics, Physics, Applied, Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, copper oxides, quantized spin models, transport properties, charge stripes, SPIN GAP, ELECTRONIC EXCITATIONS, STRIPE CORRELATIONS, SINGLE-CRYSTAL, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, RESISTIVITY, YBA2CU3OX, SYSTEMS, INPLANE, MODEL, 4006 Communications engineering, 4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardware, 5102 Atomic, molecular and optical physics

Abstract:

The scaling behaviour of the normal state transport and magnetic properties of the underdoped cuprates as a function of T/T0 is now interpreted as an evidence for the opening of a pseudogap at T* to approximately T0. To investigate the origin of the pseudogap, we have analyzed first the temperature dependence of the resistivity ρ(T) of the novel Sr2.5Ca11.5Cu24O41 spin-ladder compound under hydrostatic pressure of up to 8 GPa. This ρ(T) dependence has been successfully explained by assuming that the relevant length scale for electrical transport - the inelastic length - is given by the magnetic correlation length related to the opening of a spin-gap in a one-dimensional (1D) even-chain spin-ladder (1D-SL). As a next step, we compared the ρ(T) curves of the SL compounds and underdoped cuprates. We have found that the ρ(T) dependences of YBa2Cu4O8 and underdoped YBa2Cu3Ox demonstrate a remarkable scaling with the ρ(T) of the 1D-SL compound Sr2.5Ca11.5Cu24O41. This scaling implies that the pseudo-gap below T* in underdoped YBa2Cu4O8 and YBa2Cu3Ox is the spin-gap in the even-chain 1D-SL formed at T