Carrier mobility of insulating cuprates from time-resolved terahertz photoconductivity measurements

ORAL

Abstract

We study the ultrafast transient photoconductivity of three insulating cuprates, Sr$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$, YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_6$, and La$_2$CuO$_4$. Terahertz spectroscopy reveals mobile dilute carriers, with a conductivity that appears promptly and decays non-exponentially in picoseconds. The peak photoconductivity is orders of magnitude larger than the static photoconductivity but smaller than that of chemically doped samples, with fast dynamics that depends weakly on material, concentration, and temperature. Decay dynamics indicate hopping transport with a low activation energy, suggesting weak to intermediate polaronic binding.

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Authors

  • J. Steven Dodge

    Dept. of Physics, Simon Fraser University

  • Jesse C. Petersen

    Dept. of Physics, Oxford University

  • Amir D. Farahani

    Dept. of Physics, Simon Fraser University

  • R. Liang

    Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, University of British Columbia

  • Ivan Bozovic

    Brookhaven National Laboratory