Stripes and Charge Transport Properties of High-T_c Cuprates

TL;DR

This paper investigates unusual in-plane charge transport in lightly hole-doped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} crystals, revealing that charge stripes significantly influence metallic behavior even in antiferromagnetic phases.

Contribution

It demonstrates that charge stripes govern charge transport across a wide doping range, challenging traditional understanding of metallic behavior in antiferromagnetic cuprates.

Findings

In-plane resistivity and Hall coefficient show metallic behavior in antiferromagnetic phase.

Hole mobility in lightly doped crystals is comparable to that in optimally doped ones.

Charge stripes play a key role in charge transport across doping levels.

Abstract

Unusual features in the in-plane charge transport in lightly hole-doped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} single crystals are described. Notably, both the in-plane resistivity and the Hall coefficient show a metallic behavior at moderate temperatures even in the long-range-ordered antiferromagnetic phase, which obviously violates the Mott-Ioffe-Regel criterion for the metallic transport and can hardly be understood without employing the role of charge stripes. Moreover, the mobility of holes in this "metallic" antiferromagnetic state is found to be virtually the same as that in optimally-doped crystals, which strongly suggests that the stripes govern the charge transport in a surprisingly wide doping range up to optimum doping.