Charge Stripes and Antiferromagnetism in Insulating Nickelates and Superconducting Cuprates

TL;DR

This paper reviews neutron and X-ray scattering evidence for coupled charge and spin modulations in nickelates and cuprates, highlighting the stripe order concept and contrasting their transport properties.

Contribution

It summarizes experimental findings supporting the stripe order model in layered nickelates and cuprates, and discusses differences in their transport behaviors.

Findings

Evidence for coupled charge and spin modulations in nickelates and cuprates

Support for the topological-stripe concept in La(2-x)Sr(x)NiO(4+d)

Contrasts with Fermi-surface instability interpretations

Abstract

Neutron and X-ray scattering studies have provided strong evidence for coupled spatial modulations of charge and spin densities in layered nickelates and cuprates. The accumulated results for La(2-x)Sr(x)NiO(4+d) are consistent with the strongly-modulated topological-stripe concept. Clues from Nd-doped La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) suggest similar behavior for the cuprates. The experimental results are summarized, and features that conflict with an interpretation based on a Fermi-surface instability are emphasized. A rationalization for the differences in transport properties between the cuprates and nickelates is given.