Abstract
The recent discovery of high-temperature oxide superconductors1–4 has generated enormous interest both among physicists and, because of their obvious technological importance, in the wider community. One of the less-studied but potentially interesting properties is the thermoelectric power (or thermopower), which is the coefficient that characterizes the electromotive force resulting from the redistribution of electrons in a temperature gradient. The temperature dependence of the thermopower is modified by the electron-phonon interaction, and provides a means of estimating the strength of the interaction. We have performed measurements on several samples of YBa2Cu3O7–δ, and find an unexpected precursor effect just above the transition temperture Tc—namely, an increase rather than decrease in thermopower. The measured thermopower is positive with a magnitude typical of metallic conductors, and shows some similarity to the calculated diffusion thermopower for a reltively large electron-phonon coupling parameter of λ≈ 2.5.
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References
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Mawdsley, A., Trodahl, H., Tallon, J. et al. Thermoelectric power and electron–phonon enhancement in YBa2Cu3O7–δ. Nature 328, 233–234 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/328233a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/328233a0
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