Highly anisotropic layered systems: intraplanar metallicity and inter–planar non–metallicity

Abstract

It is shown that strong intraplanar incoherent scattering can effectively cut off the interplanar coherent tunnelling between weakly coupled layers in highly anisotropic but clean materials such as the layered cuprates. The calculated c-axis resistivity ρ c (T ) then follows the metal-like temperature dependence of the ab plane resistivity ρ ab (T ) at high temperatures. At low enough temperatures, however, ρ c (T ) exhibits a non-metal-like upturn while ρ ab (T ) remains metallic. In the metallic regime, ρ c (T ) is not limited by the maximum metallic resistivity of Mott. This correlation between ρ c (T ) and ρ ab (T ) is observed in the normal state of the high-T c cuprates.