Origin of dissipation in high-Tc superconductors

Based on a systematic experimental study of the resistivity of high-quality single crystals of (La1-xSrx)2CuO4, a phenomenological approach is proposed in which the dissipation for the direction perpendicular to the superconducting layers is explained by thermal fluctuations of the phase in Josephson junctions. By introducing an effective junction area A(H,T), an analytical expression for the resistivity is formulated, with which the c-axis resistivity as a function of T, H, and θ (angle between H and the basal plane) can be very well explained