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Thermal Conductivity as a Probe of Quasi-Particles in the Cuprates

N. P. Ong, K. Krishana, Y. Zhang, Z. A. Xu

cond-mat.supr-conarXiv:cond-mat/9904160

Abstract

In underdoped YBa2Cu3Ox (x=6.63), the low-T thermal conductivity Kappaxx varies steeply with field B at small B, and saturates to a nearly field-independent value at high fields. The simple expression [1+p(T)|B|](-1) provides an excellent fit to Kappaxx(B) over a wide range of fields. From the fit, we extract the zero-field mean-free-path, and the low temperature behavior of the QP current. The procedure also allows the QP Hall angle ThetaQP to be obtained. We find that ThetaQP falls on the 1/T2 curve extrapolated from the electrical Hall angle above Tc. Moreover, it shares the same T dependence as the field scale p(T) extracted from Kappaxx. We discuss implications of these results.

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