Anisotropically damped magnetic excitations in La<sub>2-x</sub>Sr<sub>x</sub>CuO<sub>4</sub>

ORAL

Abstract


The collective magnetic excitations in cuprate materials have been the subject of significant research to unravel their potential role in the superconducting pairing mechanism [1]. We have performed resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) measurements on these excitations on the model cuprate superconductor La2-xSrxCuO4 with doping x=0, x=0.12 and x=0.16. We find that the line-shape of the excitations is fairly-well described by a damped harmonic oscillator response model [2]. The damping parameter is strongly q-dependent. We perform measurements along high symmetry directions and, for the doped compounds, extend beyond this to map a full portion of the Brillouin zone revealing the anisotropy of the damping of excitation. The results are compared with high-energy inelastic neutron scattering.

References

1. Scalapino, D. J Rev. Mod. Phys. 84 1383 (2012)
2. Monney, C. et al. Phys. Rev. B 93 075103 (2016)

*The authors acknowledge funding and support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training in Condensed Matter Physics (CDT-CMP), Grant No. EP/L015544/1

Presenters

  • Hannah Robarts

    • HH Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
    • University of Bristol

Authors

  • Hannah Robarts

    • HH Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
    • University of Bristol
  • Stephen Hayden

    • H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol
    • University of Bristol
  • Kejin Zhou

    • Diamond Light Source