Study of the in-plane and c-axis fluctuation conductivity of melt-textured YBa2Cu3O7 under hydrostatic pressure

Abstract

We have experimentally studied the pressure dependence of the fluctuation conductivity in melt-processed YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) for currents applied parallel or perpendicular to the Cu-O2 atomic layers. Results show that the asymptotic critical regime is described by the 3D-XY universality class for both in-plane and off-plane conductivity components. The dynamical exponent for the in-plane conductivity component is z = 1.5, independently of the applied pressure. However, a pressure induced crossover in the dynamical universality class is observed in the c-axis fluctuation conductivity, where the exponent changes gradually from z = 1.5 to z = 2. The Ginzburg number increases with pressure for both crystalline orientations. This behavior suggests that the in-plane and c-axis components of the G-L coherence length decrease upon pressure application. The fluctuation spectrum for the Gaussian regime in the planar conductivity keeps the three dimensional character. However, filamentary fluctuations are observed along the c-axis above the Ginzburg temperature. Our results for the out-of-plane fluctuation conductivity in YBCO suggest that the c-axis transport is predominantly coherent in this system.