Universality of the {\bf q}=1/2 Orbital Magnetism in the Pseudogap Phase of the High-$T_c$ superconductor $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6+\mathrm{x}}$

Abstract

Several decades of debate have centered around the nature of the enigmatic pseudo-gap state in high temperature superconducting copper oxides. Recently, we reported polarized neutron diffraction measurements that suggested the existence of a magnetic texture bound to the pseudo-gap phase [Bounoua, {\it et al}. Communications Physics 5, 268 (2022)]. Such a magnetic texture is likely to involve the spontaneous appearance of loop currents within the CuO${}_2$ unit cells, which give birth to complex correlated patterns. In the underdoped $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6.6}$, the magnetic structure factor of such an orbital magnetic texture gives rise to two distinct magnetic responses at {\bf q}=0 and {\bf q}=1/2. As this pattern alters the lattice translation invariance, such a state of matter could contribute to an instability of the Fermi surface. Here, we report polarized neutron scattering measurements on a nearly optimally doped high quality single crystal of $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6.9}$ that exhibits the same {\bf q}=1/2 magnetism and a weakly overdoped $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_7$ sample where this signal is no longer sizeable. The in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic neutron scattering intensities in $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6.9}$ (at {\bf q}=1/2) and $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6.85}$ (at {\bf q}=0), reported previously, display the same temperature dependent hallmarks. The magnitudes of both {\bf q}=0 and {\bf q}=1/2 magnetic signals further exhibit the same trends upon doping in $\mathrm{YB}{\mathrm{a}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{6+\mathrm{x}}$, confirming that they are likely intertwined.

supplemental information + 6 figures

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Superconductivity due to fluctuating loop currents
• Orbital current signature using neutron diffraction