An hour-glass magnetic spectrum in an insulating, hole-doped antiferromagnet
- 16 March 2011
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature
- Vol. 471 (7338), 341-344
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09902
Abstract
Superconductivity in layered copper oxide compounds emerges when charge carriers are added to antiferromagnetically ordered CuO(2) layers. The carriers destroy the antiferromagnetic order, but strong spin fluctuations persist throughout the superconducting phase and are intimately linked to superconductivity. Neutron scattering measurements of spin fluctuations in hole-doped copper oxides have revealed an unusual 'hour-glass' feature in the momentum-resolved magnetic spectrum that is present in a wide range of superconducting and non-superconducting materials. There is no widely accepted explanation for this feature. One possibility is that it derives from a pattern of alternating spin and charge stripes, and this idea is supported by measurements on stripe-ordered La(1.875)Ba(0.125)CuO(4) (ref. 15). Many copper oxides without stripe order, however, also exhibit an hour-glass spectrum. Here we report the observation of an hour-glass magnetic spectrum in a hole-doped antiferromagnet from outside the family of superconducting copper oxides. Our system has stripe correlations and is an insulator, which means that its magnetic dynamics can conclusively be ascribed to stripes. The results provide compelling evidence that the hour-glass spectrum in the copper oxide superconductors arises from fluctuating stripes.Keywords
This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
- Testing the itinerancy of spin dynamics in superconducting Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δNature Physics, 2009
- Dispersion of the odd magnetic resonant mode in near-optimally dopedPhysical Review B, 2007
- Spin dynamics in the pseudogap state of a high-temperature superconductorNature Physics, 2007
- Doping a Mott insulator: Physics of high-temperature superconductivityReviews of Modern Physics, 2006
- From incommensurate to dispersive spin-fluctuations: The high-energy inelastic spectrum in superconductingPhysical Review B, 2005
- Dispersion of Magnetic Excitations in Optimally Doped SuperconductingPhysical Review Letters, 2004
- Dispersive Excitations in the High-Temperature SuperconductorPhysical Review Letters, 2004
- The structure of the high-energy spin excitations in a high-transition-temperature superconductorNature, 2004
- The Spin Excitation Spectrum in Superconducting YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6.85Science, 2000
- Incommensurate Spin Dynamics of Underdoped SuperconductorPhysical Review Letters, 1999