We present the results of measurements of the thermal conductivity of the quasi one-dimensional spin S=1/2 chain compound SrCuO_2 in the temperature range between 0.4 and 300 K along the directions parallel and perpendicular to the chains. An anomalously enhanced thermal conductivity is observed along the chains. The analysis of the present data and a comparison with analogous recent results for Sr_2CuO_3 and other similar materials demonstrates that this behavior is generic for cuprates with copper-oxygen chains and strong intrachain interactions. The observed anomalies are attributed to the one-dimensional energy transport by spin excitations (spinons), limited by the interaction between spin and lattice excitations. The energy transport along the spin chains has a non-diffusive character, in agreement with theoretical predictions for integrable models.
We study the effect of non-magnetic Zn$^{2+}$ (spin-$0$) and magnetic Ni$^{2+}$ (spin-$1$) impurities on the ground state and low-lying excitations of the quasi-one-dimensional spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet Sr$_{2}$CuO$_{3}$ using inelastic neutron scattering, specific heat and bulk magnetization measurements. We show that 1 \% Ni$^{2+}$ doping in Sr$_2$CuO$_3$ results in a sizable spin gap in the spinon excitations, analogous to the case of Ni-doped SrCuO$_2$ previously reported [ref. 1]. However, a similar level of Zn$^{2+}$ doping in SrCuO$_2$, investigated here for comparison, did …
We studied the finite-size effects on the magnetic behavior of the quasi-one-dimensional spin S = $\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets Sr$_{2}$CuO$_{3}$, Sr$_{2}$Cu$_{0.99}$M$_{0.01}$O$_{3}$ (M = Zn and Ni), and SrCuO$_{2}$. Magnetic susceptibility data were analyzed to estimate the concentration of chain-breaks due to extrinsically doped defects and/or due to slight oxygen off-stoichiometry. We show that the susceptibility of Sr$_{2}$Cu$_{0.99}$Ni$_{0.01}$O$_{3}$ can be described by considering Ni$^{2+}$ as a scalar defect ($S_{eff}=0$) indicating that the Ni spin is screened. In Sr$_{2}…
We report zero and longitudinal magnetic field muon spin relaxation measurements of the spin S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain material SrCuO2. We find that in a weak applied magnetic field B the spin-lattice relaxation rate follows a power law B^n with n=-0.9(3). This result is temperature independent for 5K < T < 300 K. Within conformal field theory and using the Müller ansatz we conclude ballistic spin transport in SrCuO2.
We report a comparative study of 63Cu Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spin lattice relaxation rates, T_1^{-1}, on undoped SrCuO_2 and Ca doped Sr_{0.9}Ca_{0.1}CuO_2 spin chain compounds. A temperature independent T_1^{-1} is observed for SrCuO_2 as expected for an S=1/2 Heisenberg chain. Surprisingly, we observe an exponential decrease of T_1^{-1} for T < 90,K in the Ca-doped sample evidencing the opening of a spin gap. The data analysis within the J_1-J_2 Heisenberg model employing density-matrix renormalization group calculations suggests an impurity driven small alternation of the J_2-exchange c…
We have investigated the electronic structure of the zigzag ladder (chain) compound SrCuO2 combining polarized optical absorption, reflection, photoreflectance and pseudo-dielectric function measurements with the model calculations. These measurements yield an energy gap of 1.42 eV (1.77 eV) at 300 K along (perpendicular) to the Cu-O chains. We have found that the lowest energy gap, the correlation gap, is temperature independent. The electronic structure of this oxide is calculated using both the local-spin-density-approximation with gradient correction method, and the tight-binding theory fo…
We report on the crystal growth of the quasi one-dimensional quantum spin chain compound SrCuO$_{2}$ and its doped variants containing magnetic cobalt (0.25%, 0.5%, 1% and 2.5%) and non-magnetic zinc (0.5\% and 1\%) impurities. Crystals are grown using the travelling solvent floating zone (TSFZ) method in a four-mirror optical furnace. Some crucial factors, key to the stability of a TSFZ process, including the choice of solvent composition and its associated melting behavior, are discussed in detail. The grown crystals were characterized using x-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron micros…
The S=1/2 spin chain material SrCuO2 doped with 1% S=1 Ni-impurities is studied by inelastic neutron scattering. At low temperatures, the spectrum shows a pseudogap Δ~ 8 meV, absent in the parent compound, and not related to any structural phase transition. The pseudogap is shown to be a generic feature of quantum spin chains with dilute defects. A simple model based on this idea quantitatively accounts for the exprimental data measured in the temperature range 2-300 K, and allows to represent the momentum-integrated dynamic structure factor in a universal scaling form.
The S=1/2 Heisenberg spin chain compound SrCuO2 doped with different amounts of nickel (Ni), palladium (Pd), zinc (Zn) and cobalt (Co) has been studied by means of Cu nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Replacing only a few of the S=1/2 Cu ions with Ni, Pd, Zn or Co has a major impact on the magnetic properties of the spin chain system. In the case of Ni, Pd and Zn an unusual line broadening in the low temperature NMR spectra reveals the existence of an impurity-induced local alternating magnetization (LAM), while exponentially decaying spin-lattice relaxation rates $T_1^{-1}$ towards low temper…
With wavefunction-based electronic-structure calculations we determine the Cu d-d excitation energies in quasi-one-dimensional spin-chain and ladder copper oxides. A complete set of local excitations has been calculated for cuprates with corner-sharing (Sr2CuO3 and SrCuO2) and edge-sharing (LiVCuO4, CuGeO3, LiCu2O2 and Li2CuO2) CuO4 plaquettes, with corner-sharing CuF6 octahedra (KCuF3), for the ladder system CaCu2O3, and for multiferroic cupric oxide CuO. Our data compare well with available results of optical absorption measurements on KCuF3 and the excitation energies found by resonant inel…
The single-particle spectral function and the density response of a two band Emery model for CuO chains is calculated for large on-site Cu repulsion U and large on-site energy difference Δ. For U>>U-Δ>>t the eigenfunctions are products of charge and spin parts, which allows analytical calculation of spectral functions in that limit. For other parameters numerical diagonalization is used. The low energy hole carriers are shown to be the one-dimensional analogs of the Zhang-Rice singlets. The validity of the one-band model is discussed. The results are relevant to the interpretation of photoemis…
We have investigated the thermal conductivity κ_mag of high-purity single crystals of the spin chain compound Sr2CuO3 which is considered an excellent realization of the one-dimensional spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model. We find that the spinon heat conductivity κ_mag is strongly enhanced as compared to previous results obtained on samples with lower chemical purity. The analysis of κ_mag allows to compute the spinon mean free path l_mag as a function of temperature. At low-temperature we find l_mag\sim0.5\mum, corresponding to more than 1200 chain unit cells. Upon increasing the tem…
To allow for a comparison of theoretical predictions for spin chains with experimental data, it is often important to take impurity effects as well as interchain couplings into account. Here we present the field theory for finite spin chains at finite temperature and calculate experimentally measurable quantities like susceptibilities and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. For the interchain couplings we concentrate on geometries relevant for cuprate spin chains like Sr$_2$CuO$_3$ and SrCuO$_2$. The field theoretical results are compared to experimental as well as numerical data obtained by t…
A planar Mott insulator with easy plane Néel order can be mapped onto a Gutzwiller-projected spin Hall state. The in-plane substitution of Zn$^{2+}$ and Li$^{+}$ for Cu$^{2+}$ brings zero modes around the spin vacancy. The Gutzwiller projection precludes single particle excitations, however, preserves the zero modes which have a local spin moment for Zn$^{2+}$ and a local charged hole for Li$^{+}$, respectively. While the local spin moment for Zn$^{2+}$ is screened by the long-range spin correlations, the active charge degree of freedom for Li$^{+}$ impurity twists the spin background with lon…
The spectral-weight distribution in recent neutron scattering experiments on the parent compound La$_2$CuO$_4$ (LCO), which are limited in energy range to about 450\,meV, is studied in the framework of the Hubbard model on the square lattice. We find that the higher-energy weight extends to about 566\,meV and is located at and near the momentum $[π,π]$. Our results confirm that the $U/t$ value suitable to LCO is in the range $U/t\in (6,8)$. The continuum weight energy-integrated intensity vanishes or is extremely small at momentum $[π,0]$. This behavior of the intensity is consistent with that…
We report the observation of a frequency ($ω$) and temperature (T) -dependent loss peak in $χ''$ and accompanying dispersion in $χ'$ from microwave (2-18GHz) measurements of the complex susceptibility $\tildeχ(ω, T)=χ'+iχ''$ of $Sr_{14-x}Ca_{x}Cu_{24}O_{41}$. We associate this phenomenon with a rapid decrease of spin disorder and corresponding spin relaxation rate, representing a ``spin freezing transition'' accompanying charge ordering which occurs at temperatures $\sim 250K$. Our results enable direct quantitative measurements of the spin relaxation rate, and yield information on spin dynami…
We develop a first-principles scheme based on the continued fraction approach an d ultrasoft pseudopotentials to calculate K-edge X-ray absorption spectra in solids. The method allows for calculations of K-edge X-ray absorption spectra in transition metal and rare-earths compounds with substantially reduced cutoffs respect to the norm-conserving case. We validate the method by calculating Si and O K-edges in $α$ quartz, Cu K-edge in Copper and in La$_2$CuO$_4$. For the case of Si and O edges in $α$ quartz and in Copper we obtain a good agreement with experimental data. In the Cu K-edge spectra…
By means of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the Cu L$_3$ edge, we measured the spin wave dispersion along $\langle$100$\rangle$ and $\langle$110$\rangle$ in the undoped cuprate Ca$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$. The data yields a reliable estimate of the superexchange parameter $J$ = 135 $\pm$ 4 meV using a classical spin-1/2 2D Heisenberg model with nearest-neighbor interactions and including quantum fluctuations. Including further exchange interactions increases the estimate to $J$ = 141 meV. The 40 meV dispersion between the magnetic Brillouin zone boundary points (1/2,\,0) and (1/4,\,1/4) indicat…
The in-plane $ρ_{ab}(H,T)$ and the out-of-plane $ρ_c(H,T)$ magneto-transport in magnetic fields up to 28 T has been investigated in high quality non-superconducting (down to 20 mK) La-free Bi$_{2+x}$Sr$_{2-x}$CuO$_{6+δ}$ single crystal. By measuring the angular dependence of the in-plane and out-of-plane magnetoresistivities at temperatures from 1 K down to 30 mK, we present evidence for the presence of vortex-like excitations in a non-superconducting cuprate in the insulating state. Such excitations have previously been observed by the detection of a Nernst signal in superconducting cuprates …
The parent compounds of the high-temperature cuprate superconductors are Mott insulators. It has been generally agreed that understanding the physics of the doped Mott insulators is essential to understanding the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity. A natural starting point is to elucidate the basic electronic structure of the parent compound. Here we report comprehensive high resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements on Ca$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$, a Mott insulator and a prototypical parent compound of the cuprates. Multiple underlying Fermi surface sheets are revealed for the …
We investigate the effect of disorder on the heat transport properties of the $S=\tfrac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg chain compound Sr$_2$CuO$_3$ upon chemically substituting Sr by increasing concentrations of Ca. As Ca occupies sites outside but near the Cu-O-Cu spin chains, bond disorder, i.e. a spatial variation of the exchange interaction $J$, is expected to be realized in these chains. We observe that the magnetic heat conductivity ($κ_{\mathrm{mag}}$) due to spinons propagating in the chains is gradually but strongly suppressed with increasing amount of Ca, where the doping dependence can be unders…
The electronic states near the Fermi level of recently discovered superconductor Ba$_2$CuO$_{4-δ}$ consist primarily of the Cu $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d_{3z^2-r^2}$ orbitals. We investigate the electronic correlation effect and the orbital polarization of an effective two-orbital Hubbard model mimicking the low-energy physics of Ba$_2$CuO$_{4-δ}$ in the hole-rich regime by utilizing the dynamical mean-field theory with the Lanczos method as the impurity solver. We find that the hole-overdoped Ba$_2$CuO$_{4-δ}$ with $3d^8$ (Cu$^{3+}$) is in the orbital-selective Mott phase (OSMP) at half-filling, an…
The electron dynamics in the normal state of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+δ}$ is studied by inelastic light scattering over a wide range of doping. A strong anisotropy of the electron relaxation is found which cannot be explained by single-particle properties alone. The results strongly indicate the presence of an unconventional quantum-critical metal-insulator transition where "hot" (antinodal) quasiparticles become insulating while "cold" (nodal) quasiparticles remain metallic. A phenomenology is developed which allows a quantitative understanding of the Raman results and provides a scenario wh…
We report $^{63}$Cu nuclear magnetic resonance and muon spin rotation measurements on the S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain compound Sr$_{1.9}$Ca$_{0.1}$CuO$_3$. An exponentially decreasing spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T$_1$ indicates the opening of a spin gap. This behavior is very similar to what has been observed for the cognate zigzag spin chain compound Sr$_{0.9}$Ca$_{0.1}$CuO$_2$, and confirms that the occurrence of a spin gap upon Ca doping is independent of the interchain exchange coupling $J'$. Our results therefore generally prove the appearance of a spin gap in an anti…
We use a high-statistic quantum Monte Carlo and Maximum Entropy regularization method to compute the dynamical energy correlation function (DECF) of the one-dimensional (1D) $S=1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model at finite temperatures. We also present a finite temperature analytical ansatz for the DECF which is in very good agreement with the numerical data in all the considered temperature range. From these results, and from a finite temperature generalisation of the mechanism proposed by Lorenzana and Sawatsky [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 74}, 1867 (1995)], we compute the line shape for the o…
We use resonant inelastic x-ray scattering to investigate charge-stripe correlations in La$_{1.675}$Eu$_{0.2}$Sr$_{0.125}$CuO$_4$. By differentiating elastic from inelastic scattering, it is demonstrated that charge-stripe correlations precede both the structural low-temperature tetragonal phase and the transport-defined pseudogap onset. The scattering peak amplitude from charge stripes decays approximately as $T^{-2}$ towards our detection limit. The in-plane integrated intensity, however, remains roughly temperature independent. Therefore, although the incommensurability shows a remarkably l…
Motivated by the experimental realizations of nearly one-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg model found in chain cuprates SrCuO$_2$ and Sr$_2$CuO$_3$, which remain in a quantum-critical Luttinger liquid state down to temperatures that are much lower than in-chain exchange coupling, we consider the perturbation to this state caused by interactions with nuclear spins on the same sites. We study the low-energy sector of the Heisenberg Necklace model and estimate the effect of the coupling between the nuclear and the electronic spins on the overall spins dynamics and its dependence on the magnetic fi…
We investigate the temperature and doping dependence of the optical conductivity $σ(ω)$ of Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ in terms of magnetic/lattice polaron formation. We employ dynamical mean-field theory in the context of the Holstein-t-J model where an exact analytical solution is available in the limit of infinite connectivity. We show that the pseudogap features in the optical conductivity of this compound can be associated to the formation of lattice polarons assisted by the magnetic interaction.
The incommensurate composite systems M14Cu24O41 (M=Ca,Sr,La) are based on two fundamental structural units: CuO2 chains and Cu2O3 ladders. We present electronic structure calculations within density functional theory in order to address the interrelations between chains and ladders. The calculations account for the details of the crystal structure by means of a unit cell comprising 10 chain and 7 ladder units. It turns out that chains and ladders can be treated independently, which allows us to introduce a model system based on a reduced unit cell. For the CuO2 chains, we find two characterist…
The heat transport in a system of $S=1/2$ large-$J$ Heisenberg spin chains, describing closely Sr$_2$CuO$_3$ and SrCuO$_2$ cuprates, is studied theoretically at $T\ll J$ by considering interactions of the bosonized spin excitations with optical phonons and defects. Treating rigorously the multi-boson processes, we derive a microscopic spin-phonon scattering rate that adheres to an intuitive picture of phonons acting as thermally populated defects for the fast spin excitations. The mean-free path of the latter exhibits a distinctive $T$-dependence reflecting a critical nature of spin chains and…
We investigated excitation spectra of the one-dimensional chain compound Sr$_{2}$CuO$_{3}$. The small peak at 2.3 eV in the loss function was turned to correspond to the strong charge transfer transition at 1.8 eV in conductivity. It has the excitonic character expected in one dimensional extended Hubbard model of the transition from the lower Hubberd band to the Zhang-Rice singlet state. The strongest peak at 2.7 eV in the loss function is attributed to the continuum excitation of the excitonic charge transfer transition. The spectral weight sum rule is satisfied within these transitions.
Muon spin rotation measurements supported by magnetization experiments have been carried out in a stoichiometric high-$T_c$ parent compound La$_2$CuO$_4$ in %the a temperature range from 2~K to 340~K and in transverse magnetic fields up to 5~T. Along with the antiferromagnetic local field, muon spin rotation spectra indicate presence of an additional source of magnetic field on the muon. The characteristic splitting of about 45~G coming from this additional magnetic field is consistent with spontaneous circulating currents model of Varma.
We investigated temperature dependent optical spectra of the one-dimensional chain compound Sr$_{2}$CuO$_{3}$. The charge transfer transition polarized along the chain direction shows a strongly asymmetric line shape as expected in one-dimensional extended Hubbard model. At low temperature the charge transfer peak shows a large blue shift and reveals additional sharp peaks at the gap. Even though many spectroscopic studies suggest that this material can not have a bound exciton based on the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model, we attribute the additional sharp peaks to excitons, which come …
We present a simple model for the doped compound $Nd_{2-y}Ce_{y}CuO_{4}$, in order to explain some recent experimental results on the latter. Within a Hartree-Fock context, we start from an impurity Anderson-like model and consider the magnetic splitting of the $Nd$-$4f$ ground state Kramers doublet due to exchange interactions with the ordered $Cu$ moments. Our results are in very good agreement with the experimental data, yielding a Schottky anomaly peak for the specific heat that reduces its amplitude, broadens and shifts to lower temperatures, upon $Ce$ doping. For overdoped compounds at l…
We investigate the one-magnon Raman scattering in the layered antiferromagnetic La(2)CuO(4) compound. We find that the Raman signal is composed by two one-magnon peaks: one in the B1g channel, corresponding to the Dzyaloshinskii-Moryia (DM) mode, and another in the B3g channel, corresponding to the XY mode. Furthermore, we show that a peak corresponding to the XY mode can be induced in the planar (RR) geometry when a magnetic field is applied along the easy axis for the sublattice magnetization. The appearance of such field-induced mode (FIM) signals the existence of a new magnetic state above…
We report Cu and La nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements in the title compound that reveal an inhomogeneous glassy behavior of the spin dynamics. A low temperature peak in the La spin lattice relaxation rate and the ``wipeout'' of Cu intensity both arise from these slow electronic spin fluctuations that reveal a distribution of activation energies. Inhomogeneous slowing of spin fluctuations appears to be a general feature of doped lanthanum cuprate.
Based on the Zhang-Rice singlet picture, it is argued that the half-skyrmion is created by the doped hole in the single hole doped high-T_c cuprates with N'eel ordering. The spin configuration around the Zhang-Rice singlet, which has the form of superposition of the two different d-orbital hole spin states, is studied within the non-linear σmodel and the CP^1 model. The spin configurations associated with each hole spin state are obtained, and we find that the superposition of these spin configuration turns out to be the half-skyrmion that is characterized by a half of the topological charge. …
The nature of the superconducting (SC) precursor in the cuprates has been the subject of intense interest, with profound implications for both the normal and the SC states. Different experimental probes have led to vastly disparate conclusions on the temperature range of superconducting fluctuations. The main challenges have been to separate the SC response from complex normal-state behavior, and to distinguish the underlying behavior of the quintessential CuO$_{2}$ layers from compound-specific properties. Here we reveal remarkably simple and universal behavior of the SC precursor using torqu…
Strongly correlated electrons in layered perovskite structures have been the birthplace of high-temperature superconductivity, spin liquid, and quantum criticality. Specifically, the cuprate materials with layered structures made of corner sharing square planar CuO$_4$ units have been intensely studied due to their Mott insulating grounds state which leads to high-temperature superconductivity upon doping. Identifying new compounds with similar lattice and electronic structures has become a challenge in solid state chemistry. Here, we report the hydrothermal crystal growth of a new copper tell…
Friedel oscillations induced by open boundary conditions in a two-band Hubbard model for CuO chains are numerically studied. We find that for physically realistic parameters and close to quarter filling, these oscillations have a 2k_F modulation according with experimental results on YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-delta}. In addition, we predict that, for the same parameters, as hole doping is reduced from quarter filling to half filling, Friedel oscillations would acquire a 4k_F modulation, typical of a strongly correlated electrons regime. The 4k_F modulation dominates also in the electron doped region. The …
The magnetic properties of polycrystalline samples of Ba3Cu3In4O12 (In-334) and Ba3Cu3Sc4O12 (Sc-334) are reported. Both 334 phases have a structure derived from perovskite, with CuO4 squares interconnected to form half-twist ladders along the c-axis. The Cu-O-Cu angles, ~ 90o, and the positive Weiss temperatures indicate the presence of significant ferromagnetic (FM) interactions along the Cu ladders. At low temperatures, T < 20 K, sharp transitions in the magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements indicate three-dimensional (3D) antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering at TN. TN is suppr…
This paper reanalyzes the low temperature nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) experiments in La(1.875)Ba(0.125)CuO(4) by Hunt et al. [Phys. Rev. B 64, 134565 (2001)] in an attempt to determine the dimensionality of spin modulations in this and other compounds of the lanthanum family of high temperature cuprate superconductors. It is concluded that the shape of the NQR spectra obtained by Hunt et al. favors the two-dimensional pattern of spin modulations known as "grid" or "checkerboard". The paper also contains the discussion of charge patterns, which can accompany the above spin modulation.
We present a photoemission study of La$_{0.8-x}$Eu$_{0.2}$Sr$_x$CuO$_{4}$ with doping level $x$=1/8, where the charge carriers are expected to order forming static stripes. Though the local probes in direct space seem to be consistent with this idea, there has been little evidence found for such ordering in quasiparticle dispersions. We show that the Fermi surface topology of the 1/8 compound develops notable deviations from that observed for La$_{2- x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_{4}$ in a way consistent with the FS reconstruction expected for the scattering on the antiphase stripe order.
The $S=1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain compound Sr$_2$CuO$_3$ doped with $1 \%$ and $2 \%$ of Ni impurities has been studied by means of $^{63}$Cu nuclear magnetic resonance. A strong decrease of the spin-lattice relaxation rate $T_1^{-1}$ at low temperatures points toward a spin gap, while a stretching exponent $λ< 1$ and a frequency dependence of $T_1^{-1}$ indicate that this spin gap varies spatially and should rather be characterized as a spin pseudogap. The magnitude of the spin pseudogap scales with doping level. Our results therefore evidence the finite-size character of th…
The antiferromagnetic compound Ba(TiO)Cu$_4$(PO$_4$)$_4$ contains square cupola of corner-sharing CuO$_4$ plaquettes, which were proposed to form effective quadrupolar order. To identify the magnetic structure, we have performed spherical neutron polarimetry measurements. Based on symmetry analysis and careful measurements we conclude that the orientation of the Cu$^{2+}$ spins form a non-collinear in-out structure with spins approximately perpendicular to the CuO$_4$ motif. Strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction naturally lends itself to explain this phenomenon. The identification of the gr…
Our inelastic neutron scattering experiments of the spin excitations in the slightly overdoped La{1.83}Sr{0.17}CuO{4} compound show that, under the application of a magnetic field of 5 Tesla, the low-temperature susceptibility undergoes a weight redistribution centered at the spin-gap energy. Furthermore, by comparing the temperature dependence of the neutron data with ac-susceptibility and magnetization measurements, we conclude that the filling in of the spin gap tracks the irreversibility/melting temperature rather than Tc2, which indicates an unusual interplay between the magnetic vortices…
The phonon dispersions of $\mathrm{Nd_{1.86}Ce_{0.14}CuO_{4+δ}}$ along the $[ξ,0,0]$ direction have been determined by inelastic x-ray scattering. Compared to the undoped parent compound, the two highest longitudinal phonon branches, associated with the Cu-O bond-stretching and out-of-plane oxygen vibration, are shifted to lower energies. Moreover, an anomalous softening of the bond-stretching band is observed around $\mathbf{q}=(0.2,0,0)$. These signatures provide evidence for strong electron-phonon coupling in this electron-doped high-temperature superconductor.
The multiferroic compound CuO exhibits low temperature magnetic properties similar to antiferromagnetic iron oxides, while the electronic properties have much more in common with the high $T_c$ cuprate superconductors. This suggests novel possibilities for the ultrafast optical excitation of magnetism. On the basis on atomistic spin dynamics simulations, we study the effect of phonon-assisted multimagnon absorption and photodoping on the spin dynamics in the vicinity of the first-order phase transition from collinear to spin-spiral magnetic order. Similar as in recent experiments, we find that…
A spin-glass compound, La$_{1.98}$Sr$_{0.02}$CuO$_4$, shows quasi-three-dimensional magnetic ordering below $\sim$40 K. A remarkable feature is that the magnetic correlation length along the orthorhombic $a\rm_{ortho}$ axis is much longer than that along the $b\rm_{ortho}$ axis, suggesting that the spin structure is closely related to the diagonal stripe structure. The spin-glass state can be expressed as a random freezing of quasi-three-dimensional spin clusters with anisotropic spin correlations ($ξ'_a\sim160$ Å, $ξ'_b\sim25$ Å, and $ξ'_c\sim4.7$ Åat 1.6 K). The new magnetic state is importa…
We investigated the magnetic ground state and low-energy excitations of the spin chains compounds SrCuO$_{2}$ (zigzag chains) and Sr$_{2}$CuO$_{3}$ (linear chains) in the presence of quantum impurities induced by lightly doping ($\leq 1 \%$) with Zn$^{2+}$ ($S = 0$), Co$^{2+}$ ($S =1/2$) and Ni$^{2+}$ ($S = 1$) impurities at the Cu$^{2+}$ site. We show that the ground states and the nature of low-lying excitations (i.e., gapped or gapless) depend on the spin state and symmetry of the defects. For Ni doped chains a spin gap is observed but for Zn and Co doping the excitations remain gapless. Co…
Single-crystal neutron diffraction has been used to determine the incommensurate magnetic structure of NaCu2O2, a compound built up of chains of edge-sharing CuO4 plaquettes. Magnetic structures compatible with the lattice symmetry were identified by a group-theoretical analysis, and their magnetic structure factors were compared to the experimentally observed Bragg intensities. In conjunction with other experimental data, this analysis yields an elliptical helix structure in which both the helicity and the polarization plane alternate among copper-oxide chains. This magnetic ground state is d…
The recent advances in angle resolved photoemission techniques allowed the unambiguous experimental confirmation of spin charge decoupling in quasi one dimensional (1D) Mott insulators. This opportunity stimulates a quantitative analysis of the spectral function $A(k,ω)$ of prototypical one dimensional correlated models. Here we combine Bethe Ansatz results, Lanczos diagonalizations and field theoretical approaches to obtain $A(k,ω)$ for the 1D Hubbard model as a function of the interaction strength. By introducing a {\it single spinon approximation}, an analytic expression is obtained, which …
We have performed copper NQR experiments in high temperature superconductors YBa_{2}Cu_{4}O_{8}, YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7}, and La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} (x=0.12 and 0.15), using the stimulated echo technique. The stimulated echo intensity is analyzed by a model that includes the spin-lattice relaxation process (T_ {1 }-process) and the fluctuating local field due to nuclear spin-spin coupling. The model gives quantitative account of the experimental results in Y-based compounds using the known values of 1/T_{1} and 1/T_{2G}, the gaussian decay rate of the spin echo intensity. The same model applied to L…
Na5Cu3O6, a new member of one dimensional charge ordered chain cuprates, was synthesized via the azide/nitrate route by reacting NaN3, NaNO3 and CuO. According to single crystal X-ray analysis, one dimensional CuO2 chains built up from planar, edge-sharing CuO4 squares are a dominant feature of the crystal structure. From the analysis of the Cu-O bond lengths we find that the system forms a Wigner lattice. The commensurate charge order allows to explicitly assign the valence states of either +2 or +3 to each copper atom resulting in a repetition according to Cu(2+)-Cu(3+)-Cu(2+)-Cu(2+)-Cu(3+)-…
We report a Cu $K$-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) study of charge-transfer excitations in the 2-8 eV range in the structurally simple compound HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$ at optimal doping ($T_{\rm c} = 96.5 $ K). The spectra exhibit a significant dependence on the incident photon energy which we carefully utilize to resolve a multiplet of weakly-dispersive ($ < 0.5$ eV) electron-hole excitations, including a mode at 2 eV. The observation of this 2 eV excitation suggests the existence of a charge-transfer pseudogap deep in the superconducting phase. Quite generally, our data demonstra…
