Electron irradiation and annealing effects on the pseudogap in optimally doped YBCO single crystals

The effect of room-temperature annealing on the basal-plane conductivity of YBCO single crystals is investigated after their irradiation with fast electrons. It is revealed that the excess conductivity [Formula: see text] of the samples obeys an exponential temperature dependence in a broad temperature range [Formula: see text]. Here, [Formula: see text] is the crossover temperature from the pseudogap to the fluctuation conductivity regime. The description of the excess conductivity with the expression [Formula: see text] can be interpreted in terms of the mean-field theory where [Formula: see text] corresponds to the mean-field transition temperature to the pseudogap state and the dependence [Formula: see text] is described within the framework of the BCS-BEC crossover theory.