Superconductivity, Antiferromagnetism, and Neutron Scattering

TL;DR

This paper reviews how neutron scattering has been crucial in studying spin correlations and fluctuations in high-temperature superconductors, highlighting ongoing debates and constraints on theoretical models.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of neutron scattering studies on high-temperature superconductors and discusses unresolved issues in understanding their magnetic properties.

Findings

Neutron scattering reveals persistent spin fluctuations in superconductors.

Magnetic excitations span broad energy and momentum ranges.

The nature of spin correlations in superconductors remains debated.

Abstract

High-temperature superconductivity in both the copper-oxide and the iron-pnictide/chalcogenide systems occurs in close proximity to antiferromagnetically ordered states. Neutron scattering has been an essential technique for characterizing the spin correlations in the antiferromagnetic phases and for demonstrating how the spin fluctuations persist in the superconductors. While the nature of the spin correlations in the superconductors remains controversial, the neutron scattering measurements of magnetic excitations over broad ranges of energy and momentum transfer provide important constraints on the theoretical options. We present an overview of the neutron scattering work on high-temperature superconductors and discuss some of the outstanding issues.