Quasiparticle contribution to heat carriers relaxation time in DyBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-x}$ from heat diffusivity measurements

Abstract

It is shown that the controversy on phonons or electrons being the most influenced heat carriers below the critical temperature of high-T$_c$ superconductors can be resolved. Electrical and thermal properties of the same DyBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-x}$ monodomain have been measured for two highly different oxygenation levels. While the oxygenated sample DyBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7}$ has very good superconducting properties ($T_c=90$ K), the DyBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.3}$ sample exhibits an insulator behavior. A careful comparison between measurements of the {\bf thermal diffusivity} of both samples allows us to extract the electronic contribution. This contribution to the relaxation time of heat carriers is shown to be large below $T_c$ and more sensitive to the superconducting state than the phonon contribution.

13 pages, 6 figures