ANISOTROPY OF OPTICAL AND TRANSPORT-PROPERTIES IN THE A-B PLANE OF THE HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTOR YBA2CU4O8

The anisotropy within the a-b plane of YBa2Cu4O8 has been studied on single crystal platelets by optical and electron transport measurements. The optical investigations include polarized reflectivity measurements at room temperature for photon energies between 0.5 and 4 eV and a direct measurement of the ratio of the reflectivity coefficients rb ra. The anisotropy of the electrical resistivity has been determined from AC van der Pauw measurements using the Montgomery formalism for anisotropic materials. The optical reflectivity spectra are dominated by Drude-like free electron contributions with plasmon energies of 2.8 eV and 1.67 eV for the electrical field vector along the b- and a-axis, respectively. The electrical resistivity displays an anisotropy of a factor of about 3. The superconducting transition temperature (midpoint of the resistivity drop) is 76 K. Contrary to YBa2Cu3O7, clear deviations from linear temperature dependences of the resistivity are observed in the normal state of YBa2Cu4O8. An extrapolation of the linear (normal) part gives zero resistance at 36 ± 2 K and not 0 K. The observed anisotropies are compared with results of a tight binding calculation. © 1990.