Antiferromagnetism, superconductivity, and pseudogap in three-layered high-T_c cuprates Ba_2Ca_2Cu_3O_6(F,O)_2 probed by Cu-NMR

TL;DR

This study uses Cu-NMR to explore the phase diagram of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in three-layered cuprates, revealing their coexistence, the role of interlayer coupling, and pseudogap behavior in underdoped regions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed phase diagram for three-layered cuprates, highlighting the universal coexistence of AFM and SC and the influence of interlayer magnetic coupling.

Findings

AFM and SC coexist in three-layered cuprates.

Critical hole density p_c for AFM order is ~0.075.

Unusual pseudogap collapse in underdoped AFM-SC phase.

Abstract

We report on the phase diagram of antiferromagnetism (AFM) and superconductivity (SC) in three-layered Ba_2Ca_2Cu_3O_6(F,O)_2 by means of Cu-NMR measurements. It is demonstrated that AFM and SC uniformly coexist in three-layered compounds as well as in four- and five-layered ones. The critical hole density p_c for the long range AFM order is determined as p_c ~ 0.075, which is larger than p_c ~ 0.02 and 0.055 in single- and bi-layered compounds, and smaller than p_c ~ 0.08-0.09 and 0.10-0.11 in four- and five-layered compounds, respectively. This variation of p_c is attributed to the magnetic interlayer coupling which becomes stronger as the stacking number of CuO_2 layers increases; that is, the uniform coexistence of AFM and SC is a universal phenomenon in underdoped regions when a magnetic interlayer coupling is strong enough to stabilize an AFM ordering. In addition, we highlight an unusual pseudogap behavior in three-layered compounds -- the gap behavior in low-energy magnetic excitations collapses in an underdoped region where the ground state is the AFM-SC mixed phase.