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Persistence of magnetic excitations in La2−xSrxCuO4 from the undoped insulator to the heavily overdoped non-superconducting metal

Nature Materials volume 12, pages 1019–1023 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

One of the most intensely studied scenarios of high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) postulates pairing by exchange of magnetic excitations1. Indeed, such excitations have been observed up to optimal doping in the cuprates2,3,4,5,6,7. In the heavily overdoped regime, neutron scattering measurements indicate that magnetic excitations have effectively disappeared8,9,10, and this has been argued to cause the demise of HTS with overdoping1,8,10. Here we use resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, which is sensitive to complementary parts of reciprocal space, to measure the evolution of the magnetic excitations in La2−xSrxCuO4 across the entire phase diagram, from a strongly correlated insulator (x = 0) to a non-superconducting metal (x = 0.40). For x = 0, well-defined magnon excitations are observed11. These magnons broaden with doping, but they persist with a similar dispersion and comparable intensity all the way to the non-superconducting, heavily overdoped metallic phase. The destruction of HTS with overdoping is therefore caused neither by the general disappearance nor by the overall softening of magnetic excitations. Other factors, such as the redistribution of spectral weight, must be considered.

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Figure 1: La2−xSrxCuO4 diagrams and RIXS spectra.
Figure 2: La2−xSrxCuO4 magnetic excitation spectra.
Figure 3: Evolution with doping of the magnetic excitations in La2−xSrxCuO4.

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Acknowledgements

M.P.M.D. and J.P.H. are supported by the Center for Emergent Superconductivity, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US DOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Work at Brookhaven National Laboratory was supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, US Department of Energy under Award No. DEAC02-98CH10886. This work was also partially supported by the Italian Ministry of Research MIUR (Grant No. PRIN- 20094W2LAY). The experiment was performed using the AXES instrument at ID08 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. We acknowledge insightful, continuing discussions with A. James, R. Konik and J. Tranquada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

    M. P. M. Dean, X. Liu, Y-J. Sun, J. Strle, I. Božović & J. P. Hill

  2. Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy

    G. Dellea, L. Braicovich & G. Ghiringhelli

  3. Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellow, Interface Analysis Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol BS2 8BS, UK

    R. S. Springell

  4. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), BP 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France

    F. Yakhou-Harris, K. Kummer & N. B. Brookes

  5. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

    X. Liu & Y-J. Sun

  6. Department for Complex Matter, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

    J. Strle

  7. Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

    T. Schmitt

  8. CNR-SPIN, Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze Fisiche della Materia, Italy

    L. Braicovich & G. Ghiringhelli

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  1. M. P. M. Dean
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Contributions

Experiment: M.P.M.D., G.D., G.G., R.S.S., T.S., F.Y-H., K.K., N.B.B. and L.B. Data analysis and interpretation: M.P.M.D., J.P.H. and X.L. Sample growth I.B. Sample characterization: I.B., Y-J.S. and J.S. Project planning: M.P.M.D., J.P.H. and I.B. Paper writing: M.P.M.D., J.P.H. and I.B.

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Correspondence to M. P. M. Dean or J. P. Hill.

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Dean, M., Dellea, G., Springell, R. et al. Persistence of magnetic excitations in La2−xSrxCuO4 from the undoped insulator to the heavily overdoped non-superconducting metal. Nature Mater 12, 1019–1023 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3723

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