Fluctuation conductivity and Ginzburg-Landau parameters in high-temperature superconductors above Tc: Effect of strong inelastic scattering

The normal state of the high-Tc superconductors near optimal doping is characterized by the presence of strong inelastic scattering, leading to anomalous properties, most prominently a linear-in-temperature resistivity over a very large temperature range. We study the effect of this scattering on the correction to the conductivity due to thermal fluctuations of the order parameter and on the Ginzburg-Landau parameters above Tc. The fluctuation conductivity is affected (reduced) by the inelastic scattering, as compared to the case with a constant pairbreaking scattering rate (magnetic impurities). This leads to a substantial enhancement of an effect that was recently proposed by Ioffe et al. to account for the observed upturn of the c-axis resistivity above Tc