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 abplane 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.