Abstract
The optical conductivity of CuO 2 (copper–oxygen) planes in p- and n-type cuprates thin films at various doping levels is deduced from highly accurate reflectivity data. The temperature dependence of the real part σ 1 ( ω) of this optical conductivity and the corresponding spectral weight allow to track the opening of a partial gap in the normal state of n-type Pr 2− x Ce x CuO 4 (PCCO) but not of p-type Bi 2Sr 2CaCu 2O 8+ δ (BSCCO) cuprates. This is a clear difference between these two families of cuprates, which we briefly discuss. In BSCCO, the change of the electronic kinetic energy E kin—deduced from the spectral weight—at the superconducting transition is found to cross over from a conventional BCS behavior (increase of E kin below T c) to an unconventional behavior (decrease of E kin below T c) as the free carrier density decreases. This behavior appears to be linked to the energy scale over which spectral weight is lost and goes into the superfluid condensate, hence may be related to Mott physics.
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