Optical conductivity in superconducting layered cuprate oxides

Various properties of the cuprate oxides are explained by a layer model in which normal and superconducting layers are alternately stacked and the bulk superconductivity is maintained by the proximity effect. By using this model, the optical conductivity of the cuprate oxides is calculated. The result for YBa₂Cu₃O₇ is that the optical conductivity for the light polarized parallel to the CuO chain has finite values even for frequencies below the gap, although the conductivity for the light perpendicular to the chain vanishes below the gap, as in the conventional superconductors. The character of the optical conductivities is seen in the results of the optical conductivities measured by Schlesinger et al. using untwinned YBa₂Cu₃O₇ single crystals.