Nonlinear c-axis transport in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta from two-barrier tunneling

Abstract

Motivated by the peculiar features observed through intrinsic tunneling spectroscopy of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta mesas in the normal state, we have extended the normal-state two-barrier model for the c-axis transport [M. Giura , Phys. Rev. B 68, 134505 (2003)] to the analysis of dI/dV curves. We have found that the purely normal-state model reproduces all the following experimental features: (a) the parabolic V dependence of dI/dV in the high-T region (above the conventional pseudogap temperature), (b) the emergence and the nearly voltage-independent position of the "humps" from this parabolic behavior by lowering the temperature, and (c) the crossing of the absolute dI/dV curves at a characteristic voltage V-x. Our findings indicate that conventional tunneling can be at the origin of most of the uncommon features of the c-axis transport in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta. We have compared our calculations to experimental data taken in severely underdoped and slightly underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta small mesas. We have found good agreement between the data and the calculations, without any shift of the calculated dI/dV on the vertical scale. In particular, in the normal state (above T-*) simple tunneling reproduces the experimentaldI/dV quantitatively. Below T-* quantitative discrepancies are limited to a simple rescaling of the voltage in the theoretical curves by a factor similar to 2. The need for such modifications remains an open question, that might be connected to a change of the charge of a fraction of the carriers across the pseudogap opening.