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Electron–phonon coupling reflecting dynamic charge inhomogeneity in copper oxide superconductors

Nature volume 440, pages 1170–1173 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The attempt to understand copper oxide superconductors is complicated by the presence of multiple strong interactions in these systems. Many believe that antiferromagnetism is important for superconductivity, but there has been renewed interest in the possible role of electron–lattice coupling1,2,3,4. The conventional superconductor MgB2 has a very strong electron–lattice coupling, involving a particular vibrational mode (phonon) that was predicted by standard theory and confirmed quantitatively by experiment5. Here we present inelastic scattering measurements that show a similarly strong anomaly in the Cu–O bond-stretching phonon in the copper oxide superconductors La2-xSrxCuO4 (with x = 0.07, 0.15). Conventional theory does not predict such behaviour. The anomaly is strongest in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 and La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4, compounds that exhibit spatially modulated charge and magnetic order, often called stripe order6; it occurs at a wave vector corresponding to the charge order. These results suggest that this giant electron–phonon anomaly, which is absent in undoped and over-doped non-superconductors, is associated with charge inhomogeneity. It follows that electron–phonon coupling may be important to our understanding of superconductivity, although its contribution is likely to be indirect.

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Figure 1: Displacement pattern of the oxygen ions for the phonon with q = (0.25 0 0) propagating perpendicular to the stripes.
Figure 2: Bond-stretching phonon branch in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4.
Figure 3: Representative energy scans at 10 K and 330 K.
Figure 4: Correlation of the phonon anomaly with stripe order and superconductivity.

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Acknowledgements

G.D.G. and J.M.T. are supported by the Office of Science, US Department of Energy. K.Y., M.F. and M.S. are supported by grants from the MEXT of Japan. D.R. thanks S. Kivelson for comments on the first version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institut für Festkörperphysik, POB 3640, D-76021, Karlsruhe, Germany

    D. Reznik & L. Pintschovius

  2. Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, CE Saclay, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    D. Reznik

  3. Department of Physics, Division of Materials Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, 464-8602, Nagoya, Japan

    M. Ito, S. Iikubo & M. Sato

  4. Institute for Material Research, Tohoku University, Katahira, Aoba-ku, 980-8577, Sendai, Japan

    H. Goka, M. Fujita & K. Yamada

  5. Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, 11973-5000, New York, USA

    G. D. Gu & J. M. Tranquada

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  1. D. Reznik
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Correspondence to D. Reznik.

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Reznik, D., Pintschovius, L., Ito, M. et al. Electron–phonon coupling reflecting dynamic charge inhomogeneity in copper oxide superconductors. Nature 440, 1170–1173 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04704

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