New Josephson Plasma Modes in Underdoped YBa2Cu3O6.6 Induced by Parallel Magnetic Field

Abstract

The c-axis reflectivity spectrum of underdoped YBa2Cu3O6.6 (YBCO) is measured below Tc=59K in parallel magnetic fields H//CuO2 up to 7T. Upon application of a parallel field, a new peak appears at finite frequency in the optical conductivity at the expense of suppression of c-axis condensate weight. We conclude that the dramatic change originates from different Josephson coupling strengths between bilayers with and without Josephson vortices. We find that the 400cm^-1 broad conductivity peak in YBCO gains the spectral weight under parallel magnetic field; this indicates that the condensate weight at ω=0 is distributed to the intra-bilayer mode as well as to the new optical Josephson mode.

4 pages, 3 figures