Nature 375, 561 - 563 (15 June 1995); doi:10.1038/375561a0

Evidence for stripe correlations of spins and holes in copper oxide superconductors

J. M. Tranquada^*, B. J. Sternlieb^†, J. D. Axe^*, Y. Nakamura^† & S. Uchida^†

^*Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
^†Superconductivity Research Course, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi 2-11-16, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan

ONE of the long-standing mysteries associated with the high-temperature copper oxide superconductors concerns the anomalous suppression¹ of superconductivity in La₂-_xBa_xCuO₄ (and certain related compounds) when the hole concentration x is near . Here we examine the possibility that this effect is related to dynamical two-dimensional spin correlations, incommensurate with the crystal lattice, that have been observed in La₂-_xSr_xCuO₄ by neutron scattering^2–4. A possible explanation for the incommensurability involves a coupled, dynamical modulation of spin and charge in which antiferromagnetic 'stripes' of copper spins are separated by periodically spaced domain walls to which the holes segregate^5–9. An ordered stripe phase of this type has recently been observed in hole-doped La₂NiO₄ (refs 10–12). We present evidence from neutron diffraction that in the copper oxide material La_1.6-xNd_0.4Sr_xCuO₄, with x = 0.12, a static analogue of the dynamical stripe phase is present, and is associated with an anomalous suppression of superconductivity^13,14. Our results thus provide an explanation of the '' conundrum, and also support the suggestion¹⁵ that spatial modulations of spin and charge density are related to superconductivity in the copper oxides.

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