Direct relation between the low-energy spin excitations and superconductivity of overdoped high-$T_c$ superconductors

TL;DR

This study measures low-energy spin excitations in overdoped cuprates, revealing a direct correlation between spin fluctuations and superconductivity, with excitations diminishing as doping increases and superconductivity vanishes.

Contribution

It provides direct experimental evidence linking low-energy spin excitations to superconductivity in overdoped high-$T_c$ cuprates, highlighting the importance of spin fluctuations in the pairing mechanism.

Findings

Incommensurate spin excitations peak at ~6 meV in superconducting samples.

The intensity of spin excitations decreases linearly with $T_c$ in the overdoped region.

Spin excitations become unobservable when superconductivity disappears at high doping.

Abstract

The dynamic spin susceptibility, $\chi''(\omega)$, has been measured over the energy range of $2 \leq \omega \leq 10$ meV for overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$. Incommensurate (IC) spin excitations are observed at 8 K for all superconducting samples for $0.25 \leq x \leq 0.28$ with $\chi''$ peaking at $\sim 6$ meV. The IC peaks at 6 meV become smaller in intensity with increasing $x$ and, finally, become unobservable for a sample with $x=0.30$ which has no bulk superconductivity. The maximum $\chi''$ decreases linearly with $T_c$(onset) in the overdoped region, implying a direct cooperative relation between the spin fluctuations and the superconductivity.