a-b anisotropy of the intra-unit-cell magnetic order in $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6.6}$

Abstract

Within the complex phase diagram of the hole-doped cuprates, seizing the nature of the mysterious pseudo-gap phase is essential to unravel the microscopic origin of high-temperature superconductivity. Below the pseudo-gap temperature ${\mathrm{T}}^{\star }$, evidences for intra-unit-cell orders breaking the 4-fold rotation symmetry have been provided by neutron diffraction and scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Using polarized neutron diffraction on a detwinned $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6.6}$ sample, we here report a distinct a-b anisotropy of the intra-unit-cell magnetic structure factor below ${\mathrm{T}}^{\star }$, highlighting that intra-unit-cell order in this material breaks the mirror symmetry of the CuO${}_2$ bilayers. This is likely to originate from a crisscrossed arrangement of loop currents within the $\mathrm{Cu}{\mathrm{O}}_2$ bilayer, resulting in a bilayer mean toroidal axis along the $\mathbf{b}$ direction.

Text and 4 4 figures + supplementary materials (1 figure)

References in corpus (8)

• Electronic liquid crystal state in the high-temperature superconductor YBCO(6.45)
• Magnetic order in the pseudogap phase of high-$T_C$ superconductors
• Resonant X-ray Scattering Study of Charge Density Wave Correlations in YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{6+x}$
• Incipient charge order observed by NMR in the normal state of YBa2Cu3Oy
• Spin dynamics in the pseudogap state of a high-temperature superconductor
• Orbital currents in extended Hubbard models of high-T${}_c$ cuprates
• Emergent loop current order from pair density wave superconductivity
• Evidence for competing magnetic instabilities in underdoped $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6+\mathrm{x}}$

Cited by in corpus (2)

• No Evidence for Orbital Loop Currents in Charge Ordered YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{6+x}$ from Polarized Neutron Diffraction
• Loop currents in ladder cuprates: A dynamical mean field theory study