Fermi liquid behavior of the in-plane resistivity in the pseudogap state of YBa2Cu4O8

Abstract

Our knowledge of the ground state of underdoped hole-doped cuprates has evolved considerably over the last few years. There is now compelling evidence that, inside the pseudogap phase, charge order breaks translational symmetry leading to a reconstructed Fermi surface made of small pockets. Quantum oscillations [Doiron-Leyraud N, et al. (2007)Nature447(7144):565–568], optical conductivity [Mirzaei SI, et al. (2013)Proc Natl Acad Sci USA110(15):5774–5778], and the validity of Wiedemann–Franz law [Grissonnache G, et al. (2016)Phys Rev B93:064513] point to a Fermi liquid regime at low temperature in the underdoped regime. However, the observation of a quadratic temperature dependence in the electrical resistivity at low temperatures, the hallmark of a Fermi liquid regime, is still missing. Here, we report magnetoresistance measurements in the magnetic-field–induced normal state of underdoped YBa2Cu4O8that are consistent with aT2resistivity extending down to 1.5 K. The magnitude of theT2coefficient, however, is much smaller than expected for a single pocket of the mass and size observed in quantum oscillations, implying that the reconstructed Fermi surface must consist of at least one additional pocket.