# Saturation of resistivity and Kohler's rule in Ni-doped La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4}$ cuprate

## TL;DR

This study investigates resistivity saturation and Kohler's rule in Ni-doped La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4}$, revealing how Ni impurities influence transport properties and carrier localization in underdoped cuprates.

## Contribution

It demonstrates resistivity saturation consistent with the Ioffe-Regel-Mott limit and shows that classical Kohler's rule applies when considering the parallel-resistor model.

## Key findings

- Resistivity saturation occurs at high temperatures in Ni-doped cuprates.
- Resistivity saturation scales with carrier concentration as 1/√n.
- Kohler's rule is valid in the non-superconducting regime when using the parallel-resistor model.

## Abstract

We present the results of electrical transport measurements of La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$Cu$_{1-y}$Ni$_{y}$O$_{4}$ thin single-crystal films at magnetic fields up to 9 T. Adding Ni impurity with strong Coulomb scattering potential to slightly underdoped cuprate makes the signs of resistivity saturation at $\rho_{sat}$ visible in the measurement temperature window up to 350 K. Employing the parallel-resistor formalism reveals that $\rho_{sat}$ is consistent with classical Ioffe-Regel-Mott limit and changes with carrier concentration $n$ as $\rho_{sat}\propto 1/\sqrt{n}$. Thermopower measurements show that Ni tends to localize mobile carriers, decreasing their effective concentration as $n\!\cong0.15\!-\!y$. The classical unmodified Kohler's rule is fulfilled for magnetoresistance in the nonsuperconducting part of the phase diagram when applied to the ideal branch in the parallel-resistor model.