Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Charge-stripe crystal phase in an insulating cuprate

Nature Materials volume 18, pages 103–107 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

High-temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity in cuprates arises from carrier doping of an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. This carrier doping leads to the formation of electronic liquid-crystal phases1. The insulating charge-stripe crystal phase is predicted to form when a small density of holes is doped into the charge-transfer insulator state1,2,3, but this phase is yet to be observed experimentally. Here, we use surface annealing to extend the accessible doping range in Bi-based cuprates and realize the lightly doped charge-transfer insulating state of the cuprate Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x. In this insulating state with a charge transfer gap on the order of ~1 eV, our spectroscopic imaging scanning tunnelling microscopy measurements provide strong evidence for a unidirectional charge-stripe order with a commensurate 4a0 period along the Cu–O–Cu bond. Notably, this insulating charge-stripe crystal phase develops before the onset of the pseudogap and formation of the Fermi surface. Our work provides fresh insight into the microscopic origin of electronic inhomogeneity in high-Tc cuprates.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Surface preparation and electronic characterization.
Fig. 2: Unidirectional charge-stripe order in insulating Bi-2212.
Fig. 3: Visualizing the charge-stripe order in STM differential conductance maps of insulating Bi-2212.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available upon request from the corresponding author.

References

  1. Kivelson, S. A., Fradkin, E. & Emery, V. J. Electronic liquid-crystal phases of a doped Mott insulator. Nature 393, 550–553 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Zaanen, J. & Gunnarsson, O. Charged magnetic domain lines and the magnetism of high-T c oxides. Phys. Rev. B 40, 7391–7394 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Löw, U., Emery, V. J., Fabricius, K. & Kivelson, S. A. Study of an Ising model with competing long- and short-range interactions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 1918–1921 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kivelson, S. A. et al. How to detect fluctuating stripes in the high-temperature superconductors. Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 1201–1241 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Tranquada, J. M., Sternlieb, B. J., Axe, J. D., Nakamura, Y. & Uchida, S. Evidence for stripe correlations of spins and holes in copper oxide superconductors. Nature 375, 561–563 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Wu, T. et al. Magnetic-field-induced charge-stripe order in the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy. Nature 477, 191–194 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Abbamonte, P. et al. Spatially modulated ‘Mottness’ in La2-xBaxCuO4. Nat. Phys. 1, 155–158 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ghiringhelli, G. et al. Long-range incommensurate charge fluctuations in (Y,Nd)Ba2Cu3O6+x. Science 337, 821–825 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Comin, R. et al. Broken translational and rotational symmetry via charge stripe order in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+y. Science 347, 1335–1339 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Howald, C., Eisaki, H., Kaneko, N. & Kapitulnik, A. Coexistence of periodic modulation of quasiparticle states and superconductivity in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 9705–9709 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Vershinin, M. et al. Local ordering in the pseudogap state of the high-T c superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. Science 303, 1995–1998 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Comin, R. et al. Charge order driven by Fermi-arc instability in Bi2Sr2−xLaxCuO6+δ. Science 343, 390–392 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Cai, P. et al. Visualizing the evolution from the Mott insulator to a charge-ordered insulator in lightly doped cuprates. Nat. Phys. 12, 1047–1051 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Mesaros, A. et al. Commensurate 4a 0-period charge density modulations throughout the Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x pseudogap regime. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 12661–12666 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Lawler, M. J. et al. Intra-unit-cell electronic nematicity of the high-T c copper-oxide pseudogap states. Nature 466, 347–351 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Wise, W. D. et al. Charge-density-wave origin of cuprate checkerboard visualized by scanning tunnelling microscopy. Nat. Phys. 4, 696–699 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Hanaguri, T. et al. A ‘checkerboard’ electronic crystal state in lightly hole-doped Ca2-xNaxCuO2Cl2. Nature 430, 1001–1005 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Kohsaka, Y. et al. An intrinsic bond-centered electronic glass with unidirectional domains in underdoped cuprates. Science 315, 1380–1385 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Kohsaka, Y. et al. How Cooper pairs vanish approaching the Mott insulator in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. Nature 454, 1072–1078 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Parker, C. V. et al. Fluctuating stripes at the onset of the pseudogap in the high-T c superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x. Nature 468, 677–680 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Kohsaka, Y. et al. Visualization of the emergence of the pseudogap state and the evolution to superconductivity in a lightly hole-doped Mott insulator. Nat. Phys. 8, 534–538 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Fujita, K. et al. Simultaneous transitions in cuprate momentum-space topology and electronic symmetry breaking. Science 344, 612–616 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. da Silva Neto, E. H. et al. Ubiquitous interplay between charge ordering and high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates. Science 343, 393–396 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ruan, W. et al. Relationship between the parent charge transfer gap and maximum transition temperature in cuprates. Sci. Bull. 61, 1826–1832 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Pan, S.-H. et al. Microscopic electronic inhomogeneity in the high-T c superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x. Nature 413, 282–285 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Lang, K. M. et al. Imaging the granular structure of high-T c superconductivity in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. Nature 415, 412–416 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. McElroy, K. et al. Atomic-scale sources and mechanism of nanoscale electronic disorder in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. Science 309, 1048–1052 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Zeljkovic, I. et al. Imaging the impact of single oxygen atoms on superconducting Bi2+ySr2-yCaCu2O8+x. Science 337, 320–323 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Zhou, S., Ding, H. & Wang, Z. Correlating off-stoichiometric doping and nanoscale electronic inhomogeneity in the high-T c superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 076401 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Mitzi, D. B., Lombardo, L. W., Kapitulnik, A., Laderman, S. S. & Jacowitz, R. D. Growth and properties of oxygen- and ion-doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals. Phys. Rev. B 41, 6564–6574 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Fradkin, E., Kivelson, S. A. & Tranquada, J. M. Colloquium: Theory of intertwined orders in high temperature superconductors. Rev. Mod. Phys. 87, 457–482 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Wang, Y. & Chubukov, A. V. Interplay between unidirectional and bidirectional charge-density-wave orders in underdoped cuprates. Phys. Rev. B 92, 245140 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Arrigoni, E., Fradkin, E. & Kivelson, S. A. Mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity in a striped Hubbard model. Phys. Rev. B 69, 214519 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Huang, E. W. et al. Numerical evidence of fluctuating stripes in the normal state of high-T c cuprate superconductors. Science 358, 1161–1164 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Tranquada, J. M., Buttrey, D. J., Sachan, V. & Lorenzo, J. E. Simultaneous ordering of holes and spins in La2NiO4.125. Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 1003–1006 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Comin, R. & Damascelli, A. Resonant X-ray scattering studies of charge order in cuprates. Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 7, 369–405 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank M. Allan, J.C. Davis, J.E. Hoffman, S. Kivelson and S. Sachdev for insightful conversations. I.Z. acknowledges support from DARPA grant no. N66001-17-1-4051 (Z.R.), Army Research Office grant no. W911NF-17-1-0399 (B.R.), National Science Foundation grant no. NSF-DMR-1654041 (H.Z.) and the Boston College startup. Z.W. acknowledges support from the US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences grant no. DE-FG02-99ER45747. The work in Brookhaven was supported by the Office of Science, US Department of Energy under contract no. DE-SC0012704. J.S. and R.Z. were supported by the Center for Emergent Superconductivity, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    He Zhao, Zheng Ren, Bryan Rachmilowitz, Ziqiang Wang & Ilija Zeljkovic

  2. Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

    John Schneeloch, Ruidan Zhong & Genda Gu

Authors
  1. He Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zheng Ren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bryan Rachmilowitz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. John Schneeloch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ruidan Zhong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Genda Gu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Ziqiang Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Ilija Zeljkovic
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

STM experiments were carried out by H.Z. Magnetization measurements were performed by Z.R. Temperature-dependent reflection high-energy electron diffraction measurements and heater calibration were carried out by B.R. Single crystals of optimally doped Bi-2212 were obtained from J.S., R.Z. and G.G. H.Z. analysed the STM data with guidance from I.Z. I.Z. designed and supervised the project. Z.W. provided theoretical input on the interpretation of STM data. I.Z. and Z.W. wrote the manuscript with input from all the authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ilija Zeljkovic.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Sections 1–8, Supplementary Figures 1–11, Supplementary References 1–16

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhao, H., Ren, Z., Rachmilowitz, B. et al. Charge-stripe crystal phase in an insulating cuprate. Nature Mater 18, 103–107 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0243-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0243-x

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing