Simple model for the linear temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of layered cuprates

Abstract

The thermal fluctuations of the electric field between the CuO_2 planes of layered cuprates are considered as an origin of the electrical resistivity. The model evaluation employs a set of separate plane capacitors each having area equal to the squared in-plane lattice constant a_0^2. It is shown that the scattering of charge carriers by the fluctuation of electric charge in the conducting CuO_2 planes gives rise to the in-plane electrical resistivity rho_ab. Such a mechanism can be viewed as an analog of the Rayleigh's blue-sky law---the charge carriers are scattered by thermal fluctuations of electron density.