Low Energy Electrodynamics in Solids 2012

Optical properties of mechanically-exfoliated Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8

24 Jul 2012, 20:00

2h

Fountain Court (Embassy Suites Napa Valley)

Board: 80

Student Poster Competition High-Tc Cuprates Poster Session 2

Speaker

Luke Sandilands (University of Toronto)

Description

Luke Sandilands (University of Toronto, Canada) Viktoriya Baydina (University of Toronto, Canada) Alexander Su (University of Toronto, Canada) Anjan Reijnders (University of Toronto, Canada) Tor Pedersen (Canadian Light Source, Canada) Ferenc Borondics (Canadian Light Source, Canada) Genda Gu (Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA) Shimpei Ono (University of Tokyo, Japan) Yoichi Ando (Osaka University, Japan) Kenneth Burch (Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Canada) We report on the mid-infrared (0.175 to 0.65 eV) optical conductivity of mechanically exfoliated optimally-doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 thin crystals on SiO2/Si substrates. The conductivity of thicker (greater than 100 nm) samples is comparable to bulk while that of thinner (20 nm) samples is markedly suppressed and suggestive of insulating behaviour. We attribute this change to the presence of a degraded surface layer in our samples. Using an effective medium approximation, we are able to explain the observed trend and to extract the 'intrinsic' optical properties of BSCCO as a function of thickness. Our results indicate no thickness-induced change in the optical response of BSCCO samples as thin as 3 bilayers.