Electronic diffusion in a normal state of high-Tc cuprate YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$

The bad metallic phase with resistivity above the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit, which appears also in cuprate superconductors, was recently understood by cold atom and computer simulations of the Hubbard model via charge susceptibility and charge diffusion constant. However, since reliable simulations can be typically done only at temperatures above the experimental temperatures, the question for cuprate superconductors is still open. This paper addresses this question by resorting to heat transport, which allows for the estimate of electronic diffusion and it further combines it with the resistivity to estimate the charge susceptibility. The doping and temperature dependencies of diffusion constant and charge susceptibilities are shown and discussed for two samples of YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$. Results indicate strongly incoherent transport, mean free path corresponding to the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit for the underdoped sample at temperatures above ~200 K and significant effect of the charge susceptibility on the resistivity.
Comment: 5+1 pages, 2 figures