Neutron scattering in the hole-doped cuprate superconductors

TL;DR

This paper explains neutron scattering features in hole-doped cuprate superconductors using a quantum liquid model, linking resonance energy and incommensurate peaks to spinon processes.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical explanation for neutron scattering phenomena in LSCO based on the virtual-electron pair quantum liquid model, highlighting the role of spinon processes.

Findings

Neutron resonance energy and incommensurate peaks are generated by spinon processes.

In LSCO, the neutron resonance energy is either absent or around 17 meV.

The model provides a unified understanding of neutron scattering features in cuprates.

Abstract

The occurrence of a neutron resonance energy is a common feature of unconventional superconductors. In turn, the low-temperature incommensurate sharp peaks observed in the inelastic neutron scattering of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) correspond to four rods symmetrically distributed around $[\pi,\pi]$. Here it is shown that within the virtual-electron pair quantum liquid recently introduced the neutron resonance energy and the LSCO low-temperature incommensurate sharp peaks are generated by simple and closely related spinon processes. Our results indicate that in LSCO the neutron resonance energy either does not occur or corresponds to a lower energy $\approx 17$ meV.