Anisotropy of the In-Plane and Out-of-Plane Resistivity and the Hall Effect in the Normal State of Vicinal-Grown YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ Thin Films

The resistivity and the Hall effect in the copper-oxide high-temperature superconductor YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (YBCO) are remarkably anisotropic. Using a thin film of YBCO grown on an off-axis cut SrTiO₃ substrate allows one to investigate these anisotropic transport properties in a planar and well-defined sample geometry employing a homogeneous current density. In the normal state, the Hall voltage probed parallel to the copper-oxide layers is positive and strongly temperature dependent, whereas the out-of-plane Hall voltage is negative and almost temperature independent. The results confirm previous measurements on single crystals by an entirely different measurement method and demonstrate that vicinal thin films might be also useful for investigations of other layered nanomaterials.