NORMAL-STATE C-AXIS RESISTIVITY OF THE HIGH-T-C CUPRATE SUPERCONDUCTORS

It is shown that a strong intraplanar incoherent scattering can effect ively block the interplanar coherent tunneling between the weakly coup led planes of the highly anisotropic but clean (intrinsic) materials s uch as the optimally doped high-T-c layered cuprate superconductors. T he calculated normal-state c-axis resistivity rho(c)(T) then follows t he metal-like temperature dependence of the ab-plane resistivity rho(a b)(T) at high temperatures. At low enough temperatures, however, rho(c )(T) exhibits a non-metal like upturn even as rho(ab)(T) remains metal lic. Moreover, in the metallic regime, rho(c)(T) is not limited by the maximum metallic resistivity of Mott-Ioffe-Regel, This correlation be tween the intrinsic rho(c)(T) and rho(ab)(T) is observed in the normal state of the high-T-c stoichiometric cuprates.