Direct evidence for charge stripes in a layered cobalt oxide

P. Babkevich; P. G. Freeman; M. Enderle; D. Prabhakaran; A. T. Boothroyd

doi:10.1038/ncomms11632

paper

Direct evidence for charge stripes in a layered cobalt oxide

arXiv:1605.07087 · doi:10.1038/ncomms11632

Abstract

Recent experiments indicate that static stripe-like charge order is generic to the hole-doped copper oxide superconductors and competes with superconductivity. Here we show that a similar type of charge order is present in La $_{5/3}$ Sr $_{1/3}$ CoO $_{4}$ , an insulating analogue of the copper oxide superconductors containing cobalt in place of copper. The stripe phase we have detected is accompanied by short-range, quasi-one-dimensional, antiferromagnetic order, and provides a natural explanation for the distinctive hourglass shape of the magnetic spectrum previously observed in neutron scattering measurements of La $_{5/3}$ Sr $_{1/3}$ CoO $_{4}$ and many hole-doped copper oxide superconductors. The results establish a solid empirical basis for theories of the hourglass spectrum built on short-range, quasi-static, stripe correlations.