Polarized reflectivity studies of single-crystal La_2CuO_4

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Room-temperature polarized reflectivity measurements are reported for single-crystal La2CuO4 for the (E ⊥ ĉ) and (E || ĉ) polarizations, where ĉ denotes the tetragonal axis. A Kramers–Krönig analysis is performed to obtain the frequency-dependent dielectric functions. Frequencies for the seven zone-center IR-active phonons are obtained and the longitudinal-optic–transverse-optic splittings are used to evaluate the dynamic charge on the oxygen atoms. The reflectivity spectrum for the (E ⊥ ĉ) polarization is decidedly metallic and is fitted accordingly with an overdamped Drude model and a plasma frequency of 95 meV. In the high-frequency region of the spectrum, selection rules are observed for allowed and forbidden electronic transitions. The importance of this study to the interpretation of optical measurements on high-Tc, polycrystalline pellets of La2CuO4 and related materials is also discussed.