Electronic competing phases and their magnetic field dependence in electron-doped nonsuperconducting and superconducting Pr$_{0.88}$LaCe$_{0.12}$CuO$_4$

ORAL

Abstract

We present inelastic neutron scattering studies of electron- doped Pr$_{0.88}$LaCe$_{0.12}$CuO$_4$ (PLCCO). Previous elastic neutron scattering results have shown when superconductivity is first induced by annealing in PLCCO, a quasi-two-dimensional spin density wave also appears and coexists with three- dimensional (3D) antiferromagnetic order. As a function of increasing $T_c$, the Neel temperature of the 3D order decreases and vanishes when optimal superconductivity is achieved, suggesting the potential presence of a quantum critical point at zero temperature. We have performed careful inelastic neutron scattering experiments on a $T_{c}= 21$ K and $T_{N}= 40$ K sample of PLCCO. We find that magnetic excitations in this material scale according to the proximity of a quantum critical regime. We compare the results with hole-doped La$_2$CuO$_4$.

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Authors

  • Stephen D. Wilson

    • The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1200

  • Pengcheng Dai

    • The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1200 / Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6393
    • Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  • Wei Bao

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545

  • Seung-Hun Lee

    • National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-3460

  • Y. Kurita

  • Seiki Komiya

  • Yoichi Ando

    • Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Komae, Tokyo