Crossover from Collective to Incoherent Spin Excitations in Superconducting Cuprates Probed by Detuned Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • M. Minola - (Author)
  • G. Dellea - (Author)
  • H. Gretarsson - (Author)
  • M. W. Haverkort - (Author)
  • Y. Ding - (Author)
  • D. C. Peets - , University of British Columbia (Author)
  • L. Chauviere - (Author)
  • P. Dosanjh - (Author)
  • D. A. Bonn - (Author)
  • R. Liang - (Author)
  • A. Damascelli - (Author)
  • M. Dantz - (Author)
  • X. Lu - (Author)
  • T. Schmitt - (Author)
  • L. Braicovich - (Author)
  • G. Ghiringhelli - (Author)
  • B. Keimer - (Author)
  • M. Le Tacon - (Author)

Abstract

Spin excitations in the overdoped high temperature superconductors Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ and (Bi,Pb)2(Sr,La)2CuO6+δ were investigated by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) as functions of doping and detuning of the incoming photon energy above the Cu−L₃ absorption peak. The RIXS spectra at optimal doping are dominated by a paramagnon feature with peak energy independent of photon energy, similar to prior results on underdoped cuprates. Beyond optimal doping, the RIXS data indicate a sharp crossover to a regime with a strong contribution from incoherent particle-hole excitations whose maximum shows a fluorescencelike shift upon detuning. The spectra of both compound families are closely similar, and their salient features are reproduced by exact-diagonalization calculations of the single-band Hubbard model on a finite cluster. The results are discussed in the light of recent transport experiments indicating a quantum phase transition near optimal doping.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number097001
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume119
Publication statusPublished - 31 Aug 2017
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85029702202

Keywords