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Antiferromagnetic order as the competing ground state in electron-doped Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4

Nature volume 423, pages 522–525 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Superconductivity in the high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) copper oxides competes with other possible ground states1,2. The physical explanation for superconductivity can be constrained by determining the nature of the closest competing ground state, and establishing if that state is universal among the high-Tc materials. Antiferromagnetism has been theoretically predicted3,4 to be the competing ground state. A competing ground state is revealed when superconductivity is destroyed by the application of a magnetic field, and antiferromagnetism has been observed in hole-doped materials under the influence of modest fields5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. None of the previous experiments have revealed the quantum phase transition from the superconducting state to the antiferromagnetic state, because they failed to reach the upper critical field Bc2. Here we report the results of transport and neutron-scattering experiments on electron-doped Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4 (refs 13, 14), where Bc2 can be reached15. The applied field reveals a static, commensurate, anomalously conducting long-range ordered antiferromagnetic state, in which the induced moment scales approximately linearly with the field strength until it saturates at Bc2. This and previous experiments on the hole-doped materials therefore establishes antiferromagnetic order as a competing ground state in the high-Tc copper oxide materials, irrespective of electron or hole doping.

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Figure 1: Spin structure models, bulk transport (magnetic) properties, and summary of reciprocal space probed in the neutron experiments.
Figure 2: Effect of a B∥c-axis field on the magnetic peaks (half integer) and induced ferromagnetic (integer) peaks below and above Tc.
Figure 3: Effect of a B∥c-axis field on the T dependence of the scattering at various positions and the field dependence of the integrated intensity at 5 K.
Figure 4: Effect of a B∥ab-plane field on (0.5, 0.5, L) reflections.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Jin, D.-H. Lee, S.-H. Lee, H. A. Mook and S. Skanthakumar for discussions, and R. Jin and K. Prokes for experimental assistance. This work was supported by the US NSF and DOE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996-1200, USA

    H. J. Kang, Pengcheng Dai & J. R. Thompson

  2. Condensed Matter Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 37831-6393, USA

    Pengcheng Dai, M. Matsuura & J. R. Thompson

  3. NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-8562, USA

    J. W. Lynn

  4. Department of Physics, McCullough Building, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305-4045, USA

    Shou-Cheng Zhang

  5. Hahn-Meitner-Institut, Glienicker Str 100, D-14109, Berlin, Germany

    D. N. Argyriou

  6. Spin Superstructure Project, ERATO, Japan Science and Technology, Tsukuba, 305-8562, Japan

    Y. Onose & Y. Tokura

  7. Correlated Electron Research Center, Tsukuba, 305-8562, Japan

    Y. Tokura

  8. Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 13-8656, Japan

    Y. Tokura

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Correspondence to Pengcheng Dai.

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Kang, H., Dai, P., Lynn, J. et al. Antiferromagnetic order as the competing ground state in electron-doped Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4. Nature 423, 522–525 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01641

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