Optical symmetries and anisotropic transport in high-Tc superconductors

Abstract

A simple symmetry analysis of in-plane and out-of-plane transport in a family of high temperature superconductors is presented. It is shown that generalized scaling relations exist between the low frequency electronic Raman response and the low frequency in-plane and out-of-plane conductivities in both the normal and superconducting states of the cuprates. Specifically, for both the normal and superconducting state, the temperature dependence of the low frequency $B_{1g}$ Raman slope scales with the $c-$axis conductivity, while the $B_{2g}$ Raman slope scales with the in-plane conductivity. Comparison with experiments in the normal state of Bi-2212 and Y-123 imply that the nodal transport is largely doping independent and metallic, while transport near the BZ axes is governed by a quantum critical point near doping $p\sim 0.22$ holes per CuO${}_2$ plaquette. Important differences for La-214 are discussed. It is also shown that the $c-$ axis conductivity rise for $T\ll T_c$ is a consequence of partial conservation of in-plane momentum for out-of-plane transport.

16 pages, 8 Figures (3 pages added, new discussion on pseudogap and charge ordering in La214)