Growth of the optical conductivity in the Cu-O planes

Abstract

We have studied the development of the optical conductivity as electrons are added to the Cu-O planes in ${\mathrm{Pr}}_{2\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Ce}}_{\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{CuO}}_{4\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}$ by varying x(0\ensuremath{\le}x\ensuremath{\le}0.2). In the metallic phases, contributions to the optical conductivity below 3 eV arise from three sources: mobile carriers, mid-infrared excitations, and charge-transfer excitations. The mobile carrier spectral weight grows roughly linearly with x, while the mid-infrared band appears to evolve at low doping via a transfer of spectral weight from the charge-transfer band. Comparing these results with hole doping in ${\mathrm{La}}_{2\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Sr}}_{\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{CuO}}_{4\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}$ indicates an electron-hole symmetry that is not anticipated by standard charge-transfer insulator models.