The screening effect of phonon modes in high- T c oxide superconductor

Abstract

This paper presents three different kinds of infrared (IR) spectra of oxide materials. The first one is the IR reflection spectra of Tl2Ba2Ca2Cu3O10 superconducting film at the incident angles 7°, 12° and 30°. The second one is the IR spectra of nonsuperconducting ceramic materials YBa2Cu3O6 and PrBa2Cu3O7. The third one is the IR spectra of superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-δ and of its film with the c-axis perpendicular to the film plane, as well as the changes in the spectra of these materials after annealing at different temperatures. It is found that in the spectra of high-Tc oxide superconductor, only the phonon modes along c-axis can be observed while the modes in a-b plane are absent. But in the spectra of nonsuperconductors the modes in a-b plane can be observed. Particularly in the absorption spectra of the semiconductor YBa2Cu3O6, all eleven allowed IR active modes have been detected. We suggest that the above experimental phenomena may result from the fact that the phonon modes vibrating in the a-b plane of the high-Tc oxide superconducting materials are almost screened by the free carriers which can move only in a-b plane.