Stripes in oxygen-enriched cuprates

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nature of charge-order stripes in oxygen-enriched cuprates, linking their formation to different types of oxygen defects and their magnetic properties, and discusses implications for superconductivity.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed model explaining stripe formation and magnetic behavior in oxygen-enriched cuprates, highlighting differences from heterovalent metal-doped compounds.

Findings

Charge-order stripes depend on oxygen defect type and magnetic moments.

Ozone-like molecules cause constant incommensurability in certain cuprates.

Different oxygen defects influence superconducting transition temperatures.

Abstract

Charge-order stripes of different types occur when copper oxides are doped with either heterovalent metal, like $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$, or oxygen, like $YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+y}$. The difference shows up in the doping dependence of their incommensurability: $q_c(x) \propto \sqrt{x-\check{p}}$ but $q_c(y) \approx 0.3$. The square-root dependence in the former compound family results from Coulomb repulsion between doped holes (or electrons), residing pairwise in lattice-site $O$ (or $Cu$) atoms of the $CuO_2$ planes. The almost constant $q_c(y)$ value in the second family results from the aggregation of ozone-like molecules, formed from $O^{2-}$ ions of the host with embedded oxygen atoms, $O_i$, at interstitial sites in the $CuO_2$ planes. The magnetic moments, $\mathbf{m}(O)$, of the lattice-defect $O$ atoms in the first family arrange antiferromagnetically, which gives rise to accompanying magnetization stripes of incommensurability $q_m(x) = q_c(x)/2$. The ozone complexes have a vanishing magnetic moment, $\mathbf{m}=0$, which explains the absence of accompanying magnetization stripes in the second family. Embedding excess oxygen as $O_i$ atoms in $CuO_2$ planes is likewise assumed for $HgBa_2CuO_{4+\delta}$ and oxygen-enriched bismuth cuprates. A combination of characteristics from both families is present in oxygen-enriched $La_2CuO_{4+y}$. The validity of determining the hole density in oxygen-enriched cuprates with the universal-dome method is independently confirmed. Besides causing different types of stripes, the two types of lattice-defect oxygen may also cause different types of superconductivity. This could explain the much higher $T_{c,max}$ in oxygen-enriched than $Sr$-doped cuprates, as well as the cusped cooling-curves of X-ray intensity diffracted by stripes in the former family.