No Arabic abstract
Inelastic neutron scattering data from a twinned single-crystal of YBa2Cu3O6.95 are presented that show a distinct a-b plane anisotropy in the oxygen vibrations. The Cu-O bond-stretching type phonons are simultaneously observed along the a and b directions due to a 4 meV splitting arising from the orthorhombicity. The present results show the bond-stretching branch along b (parallel to the chain) has a continuous dispersion, while the branch along a is discontinuous, suggesting a possibility of short-range cell-doubling along a. Furthermore, the LO mode along a is split in en-ergy from its TO partner at non-zero q-vectors, while the b mode is not. These results imply strong anisotropy in the electronic screening and a one-dimensional character in underlying charge fluctuations.
The Seebeck coefficient $S$ of the cuprate YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{y}$ was measured in magnetic fields large enough to suppress superconductivity, at hole dopings $p = 0.11$ and $p = 0.12$, for heat currents along the $a$ and $b$ directions of the orthorhombic crystal structure. For both directions, $S/T$ decreases and becomes negative at low temperature, a signature that the Fermi surface undergoes a reconstruction due to broken translational symmetry. Above a clear threshold field, a strong new feature appears in $S_{rm b}$, for conduction along the $b$ axis only. We attribute this feature to the onset of 3D-coherent unidirectional charge-density-wave modulations seen by x-ray diffraction, also along the $b$ axis only. Because these modulations have a sharp onset temperature well below the temperature where $S/T$ starts to drop towards negative values, we infer that they are not the cause of Fermi-surface reconstruction. Instead, the reconstruction must be caused by the quasi-2D bidirectional modulations that develop at significantly higher temperature.
Using neutron scattering, we investigate the effect of a magnetic field on the static and dynamic spin response in heavily underdoped superconducting YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+x}$ (YBCO$_{6+x}$) with x=0.33 (T$_{c}$=8 K) and 0.35 (T$_{c}$=18 K). In contrast to the heavily doped and superconducting monolayer cuprates, the elastic central peak characterizing static spin correlations does not respond observably to a magnetic field which suppresses superconductivity. Instead, we find a magnetic field induced resonant enhancement of the spin fluctuations. The energy scale of the enhanced fluctuations matches the Zeeman energy within both the normal and vortex phases while the momentum dependence is the same as the zero field bilayer response. The magnitude of the enhancement is very similar in both phases with a fractional intensity change of $(I/I_{0}-1) sim 0.1$. We suggest that the enhancement is not directly correlated with superconductivity but is the result of almost free spins located near hole rich regions.
Compelling efforts to improve the critical temperature ($T_{c}$) of superconductors have been made through high-pressure application. Understanding the underlying mechanism behind such improvements is critically important, however, much remains unclear. Here we studied ortho-III YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6.73}$ (YBCO) using x-ray scattering under hydrostatic-pressure (HP) up to ~6.0 GPa. We found the reinforced oxygen order (OO) of YBCO under HP, revealing an oxygen rearrangement in the Cu-O layer, which evidently shows the charge transfer phenomenon between the CuO$_{2}$ plane and Cu-O layer. Concurrently, we also observed no disorder-pinned charge density wave (CDW) signature in CuO$_{2}$ plane under HP. This indicates that the oxygen rearrangement modifies the quenched disorder state in the CuO$_{2}$ plane. Using these results, we appropriately explain why pressure-condition can achieve higher $T_{c}$ compared with the optimal $T_{c}$ under ambient pressure in YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+x}$. As an implication of these results, finally, we have discussed that the change in disorder could make it easier for YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+x}$ to undergo a transition to the nematic order under an external magnetic field.
Understanding the magnetic excitations in high-transition temperature (high-$T_c$) copper oxides is important because they may mediate the electron pairing for superconductivity. By determining the wavevector ({bf Q}) and energy ($hbaromega$) dependence of the magnetic excitations, one can calculate the change in the exchange energy available to the superconducting condensation energy. For the high-$T_c$ superconductor YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$, the most prominent feature in the magnetic excitations is the resonance. Although the resonance has been suggested to contribute a major part of the superconducting condensation, the accuracy of such an estimation has been in doubt because the resonance is only a small portion of the total magnetic scattering. Here we report an extensive mapping of magnetic excitations for YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.95}$ ($T_capprox 93$ K). Using the absolute intensity measurements of the full spectra, we estimate the change in the magnetic exchange energy between the normal and superconducting states and find it to be about 15 times larger than the superconducting condensation energy. Our results thus indicate that the change in the magnetic exchange energy is large enough to provide the driving force for high-$T_c$ superconductivity in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.95}$.
We have prepared oxygen isotope exchanged crystals of impurity-free YBCO with various oxygen concentents, and examined pure doping ($p$) dependance of isotope effect on superconducting transition temperature. With decreasing oxygen contents, the isotope exponent $alpha$ monotonously increases without any anomaly around $p = 1/8$. The monotonous increase in $alpha$ indicates that phonons are involved in the mechanism which causes the monotonous $T_c$ suppression with underdoping.