Effective action, magnetic excitations and quantum fluctuations in lightly doped single layer cuprates

TL;DR

This paper models lightly doped cuprates using an extended 2D t-t'-t''-J model, revealing a quantum phase transition from static to dynamic spin spirals at critical doping, with implications for magnetic excitations and superconductivity.

Contribution

It introduces a low doping effective action for the extended t-J model, demonstrating the existence of a quantum phase transition from static to dynamic spin spirals in cuprates.

Findings

Spin spiral ground state at specific parameters for La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$

Quantum fluctuations destroy static spin spirals at doping $x_c\,\approx 0.11$

Superconducting pairing persists across the phase diagram

Abstract

We consider the extended 2D $t-t'-t''-J$ model at zero temperature. Parameters of the model corresponds to doping by holes. Using the low doping effective action we demonstrate that the system can 1) preserve the long range collinear antiferromagnetic order, 2) lead to a spin spiral state (static or dynamic), 3) lead to the phase separation instability. We show that at parameters of the effective action corresponding to the single layer cuprate La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ the spin spiral ground state is realized. We derive properties of magnetic excitations and calculate quantum fluctuations. Quantum fluctuations destroy the static spin spiral at the critical doping $x_c\approx 0.11$. This is the point of the quantum phase transition to the spin-liquid state (dynamic spin spiral). The state is still double degenerate with respect to the direction of the dynamic spiral, so this is a ``directional nematic''. The superconducting pairing exists throughout the phase diagram and is not sensitive to the quantum phase transition. We also compare the calculated neutron scattering spectra with experimental data.