%0 Journal Article %T c-axis conductivity in the normal state of cuprate superconductors %A P. Prelovsek %A A. Ramsak %A I. Sega %J Physics %D 1998 %I arXiv %R 10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3745 %X The c-axis optical conductivity and d.c. resistivity are calculated within the t-J model assuming that the interlayer hopping is incoherent. Use is made of numerical results for spectral functions recently obtained with the finite-temperature Lanczos method for finite two-dimensional systems. In the optimally doped regime we find an anomalous relaxation rate, suggesting a common relaxation mechanism for intra- and interlayer transport. At low doping a pseudo-gap opening in the density of states appears to be responsible for a semimetallic-like behavior of d.c. resistivity. %U http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9807315v2