No Arabic abstract
We use neutron scattering to study the influence of a magnetic field on spin structures of Nd$_2$CuO$_4$. On cooling from room temperature, Nd$_2$CuO$_4$ goes through a series of antiferromagnetic (AF) phase transitions with different noncollinear spin structures. While a c-axis aligned magnetic field does not alter the basic zero-field noncollinear spin structures, a field parallel to the CuO$_2$ plane can transform the noncollinear structure to a collinear one (spin-flop transition), induce magnetic disorder along the c-axis, and cause hysteresis in the AF phase transitions. By comparing these results directly to the magnetoresistance (MR) measurements of Nd$_{1.975}$Ce$_{0.025}$CuO$_4$, which has essentially the same AF structures as Nd$_2$CuO$_4$, we find that a magnetic-field-induced spin-flop transition, AF phase hysteresis, and spin c-axis disorder all affect the transport properties of the material. Our results thus provide direct evidence for the existence of a strong spin-charge coupling in electron-doped copper oxides.
Charge order has now been observed in several cuprate high-temperature superconductors. We report a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering experiment on the electron-doped cuprate Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_{x}$CuO$_4$ that demonstrates the existence of dynamic correlations at the charge order wave vector. Upon cooling we observe a softening in the electronic response, which has been predicted to occur for a d-wave charge order in electron-doped cuprates. At low temperatures, the energy range of these excitations coincides with that of the dispersive magnetic modes known as paramagnons. Furthermore, measurements where the polarization of the scattered photon is resolved indicate that the dynamic response at the charge order wave vector primarily involves spin-flip excitations. Overall, our findings indicate a coupling between dynamic magnetic and charge-order correlations in the cuprates.
We report a Cu K- and L$_3$-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of charge and spin excitations of bulk Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$, with focus on post-growth annealing effects. For the parent compound Nd$_2$CuO$_4$ ($x = 0$), a clear charge-transfer gap is observed in the as-grown state, whereas the charge excitation spectra indicate that electrons are doped in the annealed state. This is consistent with the observation that annealed thin-film and polycrystalline samples of RE$_2$CuO$_4$ (RE = rare earth) can become metallic and superconducting at sufficiently high electron concentrations without Ce doping. For $x = 0.16$, a Ce concentration for which it is known that oxygen reduction destroys long-range antiferromagnetic order and induces superconductivity, we find that the high-energy spin excitations of non-superconducting as-grown and superconducting annealed crystals are nearly identical. This finding is in stark contrast to the significant changes in the low-energy spin excitations previously observed via neutron scattering.
High-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity develops near antiferromagnetic phases, and it is possible that magnetic excitations contribute to the superconducting pairing mechanism. To assess the role of antiferromagnetism, it is essential to understand the doping and temperature dependence of the two-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin correlations. The phase diagram is asymmetric with respect to electron and hole doping, and for the comparatively less-studied electron-doped materials, the antiferromagnetic phase extends much further with doping [1, 2] and appears to overlap with the superconducting phase. The archetypical electron-doped compound Nd{2-x}Ce{x}CuO{4pmdelta} (NCCO) shows bulk superconductivity above x approx 0.13 [3, 4], while evidence for antiferromagnetic order has been found up to x approx 0.17 [2, 5, 6]. Here we report inelastic magnetic neutron-scattering measurements that point to the distinct possibility that genuine long-range antiferromagnetism and superconductivity do not coexist. The data reveal a magnetic quantum critical point where superconductivity first appears, consistent with an exotic quantum phase transition between the two phases [7]. We also demonstrate that the pseudogap phenomenon in the electron-doped materials, which is associated with pronounced charge anomalies [8-11], arises from a build-up of spin correlations, in agreement with recent theoretical proposals [12, 13].
We analyze optical spectroscopy data of the electron-doped superconductor (Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$)CuO$_4$ (PCCO) to investigate the coupling of the charge carriers to bosonic modes. The method of analysis is the inversion of the optical scattering rate $tau^{-1}_{rm op}(omega,T)$ at different temperatures $T$ by means of maximum entropy technique combined with Eliashberg theory. We find that in the superconducting state the charge carriers couple to two dominant modes one at $sim 10 $meV and a second one at $sim 45 $meV. The low energy mode shows a strong temperature dependence and disappears at or slightly above the critical temperature $T_c$. The high energy mode exists above $T_c$ and moves towards higher energies with increasing temperatures. It also becomes less prominent at temperatures $> 100 $K above which it evolves into a typical spin-fluctuation background. In contrast to the hole-doped High-$T_c$ superconductors PCCO proves to be a superconductor close to the dirty limit.
We investigate whether the spin or charge degrees of freedom are responsible for the nodal gap in underdoped cuprates by performing inelastic neutron scattering and x-ray diffraction measurements on La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$, which is on the edge of the antiferromagnetic phase. We found that fluctuating incommensurate spin-density-wave (SDW) with a the bottom part of an hourglass dispersion exists even in this magnetic sample. The strongest component of these fluctuations diminishes at the same temperature where the nodal gap opens. X-ray scattering measurements on the same crystal show no signature of charge-density-wave (CDW). Therefore, we suggest that the nodal gap in the electronic band of this cuprate opens due to fluctuating SDW with no contribution from CDW.