Peculiarity of interrelation between electronic and magnetic properties of HTSC cuprates associated with short-range antiferromagnetic order

We report on the results of measurements of anisotropic resistivity of RBa₂Cu₃O_{6 + x} (R = Tm, Lu) high-temperature superconducting single crystals in a wide range of doping levels, indicating a nontrivial effect of magnetic order on the electronic properties of cuprates. In particular, our results visually demonstrate the crossover from the state with moderate anisotropy of resistivity ρ _c /ρ _ab ～ 30 to a strongly anisotropic state with ρ _c /ρ _ab ～ 7 × 10³ upon cooling as well as upon a decrease in the hole concentration in the CuO₂ planes. It is also shown that anisotropy is sensitive to the magnetic state of CuO₂ planes and attains its maximum value after the establishment of the long-range antiferromagnetic order. The results are discussed in the framework of the theory based on the t-t′-t″-J model of CuO₂ layers taking into account strong electron correlations and short-range magnetic order. In this theory, anomalies of spin correlators and Fermi surface topology for a critical hole concentration of p* ≈ 0.24 are demonstrated. The concentration dependence of the charge carrier energy indicates partial suppression of energy due to the emergence of a pseudogap at p < p*. This theory explains both the experimentally observed sensitivity of anisotropy in conductivity to the establishment of the antiferromagnetic order and the absence of anomalies in the temperature dependence of resistivity ρ _ab (T) in the vicinity of the Néel temperature.