Anisotropic superconducting and normal state properties of the electron-doped Ln2-xCexCuO4-y single crystals (Ln = Nd and Sm)

Abstract Although previous resistive measurements of the superconducting transition under applied magnetic field on a Sm 1.85 Ce 0.15 CuO 4- y single crystal did not show much dissipation effects, magnetic relaxation data on another superconducting single crystal yield a small flux pinning energy, of the order of 20 meV at T = 6 K when H ⌈ c , similar to hole-doped superconductors. In the electron-doped compounds, the normal-state resistivity, which exhibits substantial anisotropy, does not follow a linear temperature dependence, but rather a T 2 law up to about 200 K, consistent with Fermi-liquid theory for electron-electron scattering. In superconducting Nd 2- x Ce x CuO 4- y single crystals, both in-plane and out-of- plane resistivities exhibit metallic behavior with T 2 dependence.