Peculiarity of interrelation between electronic and magnetic properties of HTSC cuprates associated with short-range antiferromagnetic order

Abstract

We report on the results of measurements of anisotropic resistivity of RBa2Cu3O6 + x (R = Tm, Lu) high-temperature superconducting single crystals in a wide range of doping levels, indicating a nontrivial effect of magnetic order on the electronic properties of cuprates. In particular, our results visually demonstrate the crossover from the state with moderate anisotropy of resistivity ρc/ρab ∼ 30 to a strongly anisotropic state with ρc/ρab ∼ 7 × 103 upon cooling as well as upon a decrease in the hole concentration in the CuO2 planes. It is also shown that anisotropy is sensitive to the magnetic state of CuO2 planes and attains its maximum value after the establishment of the long-range antiferromagnetic order. The results are discussed in the framework of the theory based on the t-t′-t″-J model of CuO2 layers taking into account strong electron correlations and short-range magnetic order. In this theory, anomalies of spin correlators and Fermi surface topology for a critical hole concentration of p* ≈ 0.24 are demonstrated. The concentration dependence of the charge carrier energy indicates partial suppression of energy due to the emergence of a pseudogap at p < p*. This theory explains both the experimentally observed sensitivity of anisotropy in conductivity to the establishment of the antiferromagnetic order and the absence of anomalies in the temperature dependence of resistivity ρab(T) in the vicinity of the Neel temperature.