Two Dimensional Incommensurate and Three Dimensional Commensurate Magnetic Order and Fluctuations in $La_{2-x}Ba_{x}CuO_{4}$

TL;DR

This study investigates the evolution of magnetic order and fluctuations in lightly doped La_{2-x}Ba_{x}CuO_{4} using neutron scattering, revealing a transition from 3D commensurate to 2D incommensurate magnetism and its relation to the pseudogap regime.

Contribution

It provides detailed neutron scattering data on magnetic phases in La_{2-x}Ba_{x}CuO_{4}, highlighting the coexistence and transition between different magnetic states with doping.

Findings

Transition from 3D commensurate to 2D incommensurate magnetism with doping.

Coexistence of magnetic states at low doping levels.

Presence of dynamic magnetic fluctuations in the pseudogap regime.

Abstract

We present neutron scattering measurements on single crystals of lightly doped $La_{2-x}Ba_{x}CuO_{4}$, with $0 \leq x \leq? 0.035$. These reveal the evolution of the magnetism in this prototypical doped Mott insulator from a three dimensional (3D) commensurate (C) antiferromagnetic ground state, which orders at a relatively high TN, to a two dimensional (2D) incommensurate (IC) ground state with finite ranged static correlations, which appear below a relatively low effective TN. At low temperatures, the 2D IC magnetism co-exists with the 3D C magnetism for doping concentrations as low as ? 0.0125. We find no signal of a 3D C magnetic ground state by x $\sim$? 0.025, consistent with the upper limit of x $\sim$? 0.02 observed in the sister family of doped Mott insulators, $La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}$. The 2D IC ground states observed for $0.0125 \leq x \leq 0.035$ are diagonal, and are rotated by 45 degrees within the orthorhombic basal plane compared with those previously reported for samples with superconducting ground states: $La_{2-x}Ba_{x}CuO_{4}$, with $0.05 \leq? x \leq? 0.095. We construct a phase diagram based solely on magnetic order parameter measurements, which displays much of the complexity of standard high temperature superconductivity phase diagrams discussed in the literature. Analysis of high energy-resolution inelastic neutron scattering at moderately low temperatures shows a progressive depletion of the very low energy dynamic magnetic susceptibility as x increases from 0.0125 to 0.035. This low energy, dynamic susceptibility falls off? with increasing temperature on a scale much higher than the effective 2D IC TN appropriate to these materials. Appreciable dynamic 2D IC magnetic fluctuations inhabit much of the "pseudogap" regime of the phase diagram.