Electron localization induced by grain boundary disorder in the normal state of high-Tc superconductors

We have studied the effects of superconducting grain boundary disorder on the normal state transport properties of cuprate films. Dip-coated granular YBa2Cu3O7-y (YBaCuO) thick films on polycrystalline MgO substrates were synthesized and networked grains were systematically made less disordered in order to probe the crossover from strong to weak inter-grain disorder. Grain boundary passivation was achieved by metallic inclusions of different forms. We have shown that the normal state of samples exhibit a semiconducting behavior and changes to 'metallic' with sharper transitions to the superconducting state as we reduce grain-interfaces disorder, i.e. increase metallic inclusion content. On the basis of electron localization mechanisms, the normal state conductivity is thus shown to undergo a dimensional crossover from 3D to 2D in the frame of the variable-range hopping (VRH) regime. The transition threshold was found to depend on the form of metallic inclusions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.