MAGNETIC, TRANSPORT, AND OPTICAL-PROPERTIES OF MONOLAYER COPPER OXIDES

The authors review the results of a wide variety of experiments on mat erials such as La2CuO4 and Nd2CuO4 that contain weakly coupled CuO2 la yers. These materials are antiferromagnetic insulators with very large Heisenberg exchange energies, which become high-temperature supercond uctors when charge carriers are added to the CuO2 layers. The growth o f large single crystals has made it possible to carry out neutron scat tering, as well as anisotropic optical, transport, and magnetization m easurements. The properties of the undoped CuO2 layer are reviewed, an d the evolution of magnetic, optical, and transport properties with th e addition of charge carriers is discussed. The emphasis is on the pur e and lightly doped materials, although the magnetism in the supercond uctors is discussed. [S0034-6861(98)00403-6].