Competition between spin ordering and superconductivity near the pseudogap boundary in La2-xSrxCuO4: insights from NMR

Abstract

When superconductivity is suppressed by high magnetic fields in La2-xSrxCuO4, striped antiferromagnetic (AFM) order becomes the magnetic ground state of the entire pseudogap regime, up to its end at the doping p* [M. Frachet, I. Vinograd et al., Nat. Phys. 16, 1064 (2020)]. Glass-like freezing of this state is detected in 139La NMR measurements of the spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1. Here, we present a quantitative analysis of 1/T1 data in the hole-doping range p=x=0.12-0.171, based on the Bloembergen-Purcell-Pound (BPP) theory, modified to include statistical distribution of parameters arising from strong spatial inhomogeneity. We observe spin fluctuations to slow down at temperatures T near the onset of static charge order and, overall, the effect of the field B may be seen as equivalent to strengthening stripe order by approaching p=0.12 doping. In details however, our analysis reveals significant departure from usual field-induced magnetic transitions. The continuous growth of the amplitude of the fluctuating moment with increasing B suggests a nearly-critical state in the B->0 limit, with very weak quasi-static moments possibly confined in small areas like vortex cores. Further, the nucleation of spin order in the vortex cores is shown to account quantitatively for both the value and the p dependence of a field scale characterizing bulk spin freezing. The correlation time of the fluctuating moment appears to depend exponentially on B/T (over the investigated range). This explains the timescale dependence of various experimental manifestations, including why, for transport measurements, the AFM moments may be considered static over a considerable range of B and T. These results make the high-field magnetic ground state up to p* an integral part of the discussion on putative quantum criticality.

References in corpus (20)

• Theory of Intertwined Orders in High Temperature Superconductors
• Bose-Einstein Condensation in Magnetic Insulators
• Charge density wave fluctuations in La2-xSrxCuO4 and their competition with superconductivity
• Two energy scales in the spin excitations of the high-T_c superconductor La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$
• Tuning competing orders in La2-xSrxCuO4 cuprate superconductors by the application of an external magnetic field
• Disappearance of antiferromagnetic spin excitations in over-doped La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$
• The Persistence of High-Frequency Spin Fluctuations in Overdoped La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$ ($x$=0.22)
• Similar glassy features in the NMR response of pure and disordered La1.88Sr0.12CuO4
• Field-induced soft-mode quantum phase transition in La${}_{1.855}$Sr${}_{0.145}$CuO${}_4$
• Towards a two-dimensional superconducting state of La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_2$ in a moderate external magnetic field
• Crossover from Collective to Incoherent Spin Excitations in Superconducting Cuprates Probed by Detuned Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering
• High-energy magnetic excitations in overdoped La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$ studied by neutron and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering
• ${}^{139}$La NMR investigation of the interplay between the lattice, charge, and spin dynamics in charge ordered high $T_c$ cuprate La${}_{1.875}$Ba${}_{0.125}$CuO${}_4$
• Inverse Laplace Transformation Analysis of Stretched Exponential Relaxation
• A left and right truncated lognormal distribution for the stars
• High magnetic field ultrasound study of spin freezing in La${}_{1.88}$Sr${}_{0.12}$CuO${}_4$
• Low-energy spin dynamics and critical hole concentrations in La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$ ($0.07\le x\le 0.2$) revealed by ${}^{139}$La and ${}^{63}$Cu nuclear magnetic resonance
• ${}^{139}$La NMR investigation in underdoped La${}_{1.93}$Sr${}_{0.07}$CuO${}_4$
• Field-induced inter-planar correlations in the high-temperature superconductor La1.88Sr0.12CuO4
• Quasielastic neutron scattering from two dimensional antiferromagnets at a finite temperature

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Signature of quantum criticality in cuprates by charge density fluctuations
• Fermi Arcs From Dynamical Variational Monte Carlo
• From non-metal to strange metal at the stripe-percolation transition in La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$
• Intertwined Orders and Electronic Structure in Superconducting Vortex Halos
• Robust Charge-Density Wave Correlations in Optimally-Doped YBa2Cu3Oy
• Strange metal from spin fluctuations in a cuprate superconductor
• Spin-stripe order tied to the pseudogap phase in La1.8-xEu0.2SrxCuO4
• Geometric orthogonal metals: Hidden antiferromagnetism and pseudogap from fluctuating stripes
• Gradual emergence of superconductivity in underdoped LSCO
• Frequency dependence of temporal spin stiffness and short-range magnetic order in the doped two-dimensional Hubbard model