Hidden itinerant-spin phase in heavily overdoped La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO4 superconductors revealed by dilute Fe doping: a combined neutron scattering and angle-resolved photoemission study.
We demonstrated experimentally a direct way to probe a hidden propensity to the formation of a spin-density wave in a nonmagnetic metal with strong Fermi surface nesting. Substituting Fe for a tiny amount of Cu (1%) induced an incommensurate magnetic order below 20 K in heavily overdoped La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4). Elastic neutron scattering suggested that this order cannot be ascribed to the localized spins on Cu or doped Fe. Angle-resolved photoemission revealed a strong Fermi surface nesting inherent in the pristine La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) that likely drives this order. Our finding presents the first example of the long-sought "itinerant-spin extreme" of cuprates, where the spins of itinerant doped holes define the magnetic ordering ground state; it complements the current picture of cuprate spin physics that highlights the predominant role of localized spins at lower dopings.
Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Rui-Hua
RH
He
M
M
Fujita
M
M
Enoki
M
M
Hashimoto
S
S
Iikubo
S-K
SK
Mo
Hong
H
Yao
T
T
Adachi
Y
Y
Koike
Z
Z
Hussain
Z-X
ZX
Shen
K
K
Yamada