Screening of point charge impurities in highly anisotropic metals: application to ${\mu }^{+}$ spin relaxation in underdoped cuprates

Abstract

We calculate the screening charge density distribution due to a point charge, such as that of a positive muon (${\mu }^{+}$), placed between the planes of a highly anisotropic layered metal. In underdoped hole cuprates the screening charge converts the charge density in the metallic-plane unit cells in the vicinity of the ${\mu }^{+}$ to nearly its value in the insulating state. The current-loop ordered state observed by polarized neutron diffraction then vanishes in such cells, and also in nearby cells over a distance of order the intrinsic correlation length of the loop-ordered state. This in turn strongly suppresses the loop-current field at the ${\mu }^{+}$ site. We estimate this suppressed field in underdoped YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{6+x}$ and La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$, and find consistency with the observed 0.2--0.3 G field in the former case and the observed upper bound of $\sim$0.2 G in the latter case. This resolves the controversy between the neutron diffraction and $\mu$SR experiments. The screening calculation also has relevance for the effect of other charge impurities in the cuprates, such as the dopants themselves.

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Cited by in corpus (12)

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• Novel magnetic order in pseudogap state of high Tc copper oxides superconductors
• Detection of the Unusual Magnetic Orders in the Pseudogap Region of a High-Temperature Superconducting YBa2Cu3O6.6 Crystal by Muon-Spin Relaxation
• Absence of static orbital current magnetism at the apical oxygen site in HgBa${}_2$CuO${}_{4+\delta }$ from NMR
• Precision Search for Magnetic Order in the Pseudogap Regime of La2-xSrxCuO4 by Muon Spin Relaxation
• Investigation of potential fluctuating intra-unit cell magnetic order in cuprates by muon spin relaxation
• Designing ferromagnetism in vanadium-oxide based superlattices
• Theory of charged impurities in correlated electron materials: Application to muon spectroscopy of high-Tc superconductors
• Signatures of orbital loop currents in the spatially resolved local density of states
• Coupling of Magnetic Orders in La2CuO4+x
• A variational method in the problem of screening an external charge in strongly correlated metals
• Intra-unit-cell Magnetic Order in Stoichiometric La${}_2$CuO${}_4$