Hall angle in high-T_c cuprates: anomalous temperature dependance and anisotropic scattering

Abstract

The anisotropy of the scattering rates, 1/τ_tr ∝ T and 1/τ_H ∝ T², implied effectively by the anomalous temperature dependence of the normal-state in-plane Hall angle, cotθ_H∝T², observed in the high-T_c layered cuprates is reasoned out to be a natural consequence of the semiclassical Boltzmann transport equation with crossed electric (E) and magnetic (H) fields. It is argued that while the scattering rate 1/τ_tr describes the longitudinal relaxation of the dipolar E-perturbations to the circular zero-field reference distribution function which is known to correspond to a non-Fermi liquid with 1/τ_tr ∝T, the scattering rate 1/τ_H, describes the transverse relaxation of the H-perturbations to the E-induced shifted reference distribution which is Fermi-liquid-like giving1/τ_H ∝ T². Incorporation of impurity scattering gives cotθ_H = aT² + b in agreement with the observed temperature dependence.