Unravelling local spin polarization of Zhang-Rice singlet in lightly hole-doped cuprates using high-energy optical conductivity

TL;DR

This study reveals strong local spin polarization and ferromagnetic correlations near doped holes in lightly hole-doped cuprates, using high-energy optical conductivity measurements up to 35 eV to uncover magnetic and electronic correlations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using high-energy optical conductivity to probe local magnetic correlations in hole-doped cuprates, supported by theoretical calculations.

Findings

Strong spin polarization observed near doped holes.

Anomaly at ~25 K linked to magnetic stripe phase.

Identification of high-energy optical transitions and their temperature dependence.

Abstract

Unrevealing local magnetic and electronic correlations in the vicinity of charge carriers is crucial in order to understand rich physical properties in correlated electron systems. Here, using high-energy optical conductivity (up to 35 eV) as a function of temperature and polarization, we observe a surprisingly strong spin polarization of the local spin singlet with enhanced ferromagnetic correlations between Cu spins near the doped holes in lightly hole-doped La$_{1.95}$Sr$_{0.05}$Cu$_{0.95}$Zn$_{0.05}$O$_{4}$. The changes of the local spin polarization manifest strongly in the temperature-dependent optical conductivity at ~7.2 eV, with an anomaly at the magnetic stripe phase (~25 K), accompanied by anomalous spectral-weight transfer in a broad energy range. Supported by theoretical calculations, we also assign high-energy optical transitions and their corresponding temperature dependence, particularly at ~2.5 ~8.7, ~9.7, ~11.3 and ~21.8 eV. Our result shows the importance of a strong mixture of spin singlet and triplet states in hole-doped cuprates and demonstrates a new strategy to probe local magnetic correlations using high- energy optical conductivity in correlated electron systems.