Evidence for a universal length scale of dynamic charge inhomogeneity in cuprate superconductors

Abstract

Time-resolved optical experiments can give unique information on the characteristic length scales of dynamic charge inhomogeneity on femtosecond timescales. From data on the effective quasiparticle relaxation time r in La2-xSrxCuO4 and Nd2-xCexCuO4 we derive the temperature- and doping- dependence of the intrinsic phonon escape length le, which, under certain circumstances, can be shown to be a direct measure of charge inhomogeneity. Remarkably, a common feature of both p and n-type cuprates - which has important consequences for superconductivity - is that as T  Tc from above, the escape length approaches the zero-temperature superconducting coherence length, le  s(0). In close vicinity of Tc, le appears to follow the critical behaviour of the Ginsburg-Landau coherence length, GL(T). In the normal state le is found to be in excellent agreement with the mean free path lm obtained from the resistivity data. The data on le also agree well with the data on structural coherence lengths ls obtained from neutron scattering experiments, implying the existence of complex intrinsic textures on different length scales which may have a profound effect on the functional properties of these materials.

arXiv commentTo appear in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (11)

• Discovery of microscopic electronic inhomogeneity in the high-Tc superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x
• Quasiparticle relaxation dynamics in superconductors with different gap structures: theory and experiments on YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-δ}
• Periodic Density of States Modulations in Superconducting $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{i}}_2\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{r}}_2\mathrm{CaC}{\mathrm{u}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_{8+\delta }$
• Single particle and collective excitations in the one-dimensional charge density wave solid K0.3MoO3 probed in real time by femtosecond spectroscopy
• Neutron diffraction evidence of microscopic charge inhomogeneities in the CuO2 plane of superconducting La2-xSrxCuO4 (0 < x <0.30)
• Photoinduced Changes of Reflectivity in Single Crystals of YBa2Cu3O6.5 (Ortho II)
• The attainable superconducting Tc in a model of phase coherence by percolation
• Quasiparticle dynamics and gap structure in Hg1223 investigated with femtosecond spectroscopy
• Finite-wavevector Jahn-Teller-pairing and superconductivity in the cuprat es
• Structural instability associated with the tilting of CuO6 octahedra in La2-xSrxCuO4
• X-Ray-Diffraction Study of Charge-Density-Waves and Oxygen-Ordering in YBa2Cu3O6+x Superconductor

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Ultrafast optical spectroscopy of strongly correlated materials and high-temperature superconductors: a non-equilibrium approach
• Ultrafast melting and recovery of collective order in the excitonic insulator Ta${}_2$NiSe${}_5$
• Structural and Tc inhomogeneities inherent to doping in La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 superconductors and their effects on the precursor diamagnetism
• Robust intrinsic electronic superconducting phases in underdoped La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO4 single crystals
• Calculations of some doping nanostructurations and patterns improving the functionality of high-temperature superconductors for bolometer device applications