Transport in ultraclean YBa2Cu3O7: neither unitary nor born impurity scattering

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 92; no. 2; p. 027001
• Main Authors: Hill, R W, Lupien, Christian, Sutherland, M, Boaknin, Etienne, Hawthorn, D G, Proust, Cyril, Ronning, F, Taillefer, Louis, Liang, Ruixing, Bonn, D A, Hardy, W N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Society 16-01-2004
• Subjects: Condensed Matter; Physics; Superconductivity
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.027001

The thermal conductivity of ultraclean YBa2Cu3O7 was measured at very low temperature in magnetic fields up to 13 T. The temperature and field dependence of the electronic heat conductivity show that two widespread assumptions of transport theory applied to unconventional superconductors fail for clean cuprates: impurity scattering cannot be treated in the usual unitary limit (nor indeed in the Born limit), and scattering of quasiparticles off vortices cannot be neglected. Our study also sheds light on the long-standing puzzle of a sudden onset of a "plateau" in the thermal conductivity of Bi-2212 versus field.