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.
We use small angle neutron scattering to study the superconducting vortex lattice in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ as a function of doping and magnetic field. We show that near optimally doping the vortex lattice coordination and the superconducting coherence length $xi$ are controlled by a van-Hove singularity crossing the Fermi level near the Brillouin zone boundary. The vortex lattice properties change dramatically as a spin-density-wave instability is approached upon underdoping. The Bragg glass paradigm provides a good description of this regime and suggests that SDW order acts as a novel source of disorder on the vortex lattice.
The superfluid density of overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ thin films of high quality have been measured with Tc (defined by the onset of the Meissner effect) from 5.1 to 41.6 K by Bosovic et al. Given this Tc the superfluid density shows no clear evidence of critical fluctuations and no indication of vortex unbinding as T->Tc. Nevertheless, the superfluid density displays the expected behavior for for a quantum phase transition (QPT) in the (3+1)D-xy universality class, rho(T=0)~Tc^2. However, this relation is also a hallmark of dirty superconductors, treated in the mean-field approximation. Here we attempt to clear out the nature of the suppression of ro(T) as Tc->0. Noting that for any finite system the continuous transition will be rounded we perform a finite size scaling analysis. It uncovers that the ro(T) data data are consistent with a finite length limited 3D-xy transition. In some films it is their thickness and in others their inhomogeneity that determines the limiting length. Having established the precondition for the occurrence of a QPT mapping on the (3+1) D-xy model, we explore the consistency with the hallmarks of this transition. In particular with the relations rho(T)/rho(0)=1-ycT/Tc, rho((0)^Tc^2, yc=alpha*Tc/ro(0), where alpha is the coefficient in rho(T)=rho(0)-alphaT as T->0. The emerging agreement with these characteristics points clearly to a quantum fluctuations induced suppression, revealing the crossover from the thermal to the quantum critical regime as Tc ->0. In the classical-quantum mapping it corresponds to a 3D to (3 + 1)D crossover.
The discovery of charge- and spin-density-wave (CDW/SDW) orders in superconducting cuprates has altered our perspective on the nature of high-temperature superconductivity (SC). However, it has proven difficult to fully elucidate the relationship between the density wave orders and SC. Here using resonant soft X-ray scattering we study the archetypal cuprate, La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) over a broad doping range. We reveal the existence of two types of CDW orders in LSCO, namely CDW stripe order and CDW short-range order (SRO). While the CDW-SRO is suppressed by SC, it is partially transformed into the CDW stripe order with developing SDW stripe order near the superconducting $T_{rm c}$. These findings indicate that the stripe orders and SC are inhomogeneously distributed in the superconducting CuO$_2$ planes of LSCO. This further suggests a new perspective on the putative pair-density-wave order that coexists with SC, SDW, and CDW orders.
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.
The dynamical stripe structure relating to the 1/8 problem was investigated in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ utilizing the high frequency response of Raman scattering. The split of the two-magnon peak due to the formation of the stripe structure was observed at whole Sr concentration region from $x=0.035$ to 0.25 at low temperatures. Especially clear split was observed at low carrier concentration region $x=0.035 - 0.06$ and at $x sim 1/8$. The onset temperatures of these stripe structures are as high as 300-350 K, which are much higher than the temperatures measured by slow response probes.
Itzik Kapon
,David S. Ellis
,Gil Drachuck
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(2016)
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"Opening a nodal gap by fluctuating spin-density-wave in lightly doped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$"
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Itzik Kapon
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