Saturation of resistivity and Kohler's rule in Ni-doped La_(1.85)Sr_(0.15)CuO₄ cuprate

We present the results of electrical transport measurements of La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$Cu$_{1-y}$Ni$_{y}$O$_{4}$ thin single-crystal films at magnetic fields up to 9 T. Adding Ni impurity with strong Coulomb scattering potential to slightly underdoped cuprate makes the signs of resistivity saturation at $\rho_{sat}$ visible in the measurement temperature window up to 350 K. Employing the parallel-resistor formalism reveals that $\rho_{sat}$ is consistent with classical Ioffe-Regel-Mott limit and changes with carrier concentration $n$ as $\rho_{sat}\propto 1/\sqrt{n}$. Thermopower measurements show that Ni tends to localize mobile carriers, decreasing their effective concentration as $n\!\cong0.15\!-\!y$. The classical unmodified Kohler's rule is fulfilled for magnetoresistance in the nonsuperconducting part of the phase diagram when applied to the ideal branch in the parallel-resistor model.