arXiv subjects

K. M. Kojima

Publications and source records attributed to K. M. Kojima.

54 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Muon Spin Relaxation Studies of Magnetic-Field-Induced Effects in High-$T_{c}$ Superconductors

Muon spin relaxation ($μ$SR) measurements in high transverse magnetic fields ($\parallel \hat c$) revealed strong field-induced quasi-static magnetism in the underdoped and Eu doped (La,Sr)$_{2}$CuO$_{4}$ and La$_{1.875}$Ba$_{0.125}$CuO$_{4}$, existing well above $T_{c}$ and $T_{N}$. The susceptibility-counterpart of Cu spin polarization, derived from the muon spin relaxation rate, exhibits a divergent behavior towards $T \sim 25$ K. No field-induced magnetism was detected in overdoped La$_{1.81}$Sr$_{0.19}$CuO$_{4}$, optimally doped Bi2212, and Zn-doped YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7}$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2005

Effect of disorder outside the CuO$_{2}$ planes on $T_{c}$ of copper oxide superconductors

The effect of disorder on the superconducting transition temperature $T_{c}$ of cuprate superconductors is examined. Disorder is introduced into the cation sites in the plane adjacent to the CuO$_{2}$ planes of two single-layer systems, Bi$_{2.0}$Sr$_{1.6}$Ln$_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+δ}$ and La$_{1.85-y}$Nd$_{y}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4}$. Disorder is controlled by changing rare earth (Ln) ions with different ionic radius in the former, and by varying the Nd content in the latter with the doped carrier density kept constant. We show that this type of disorder works as weak scatterers in contrast to the in-plane disorder produced by Zn, but remarkably reduces $T_{c}$ suggesting novel effects of disorder on high-$T_{c}$ superconductivity.

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arXiv2004

Magnetic Phase Diagram of the Hole-doped Ca$_{2-x}$Na$_{x}$CuO$_{2}$Cl$_{2}$ Cuprate Superconductor

We report on the magnetic phase diagram of a hole-doped cuprate Ca$_{2-x}$Na$_{x}$CuO$_{2}$Cl$_{2}$, which is free from buckling of CuO$_2$ planes, determined by muon spin rotation and relaxation. It is characterized by a quasi-static spin glass-like phase over a range of sodium concentration ($0.05\leq x\leq 0.12$), which is held between long range antiferromagnetic (AF) phase ($x\leq 0.02$) and superconducting phase where the system is non-magnetic for $x\geq 0.15$. The obtained phase diagram qualitatively agrees well with that commonly found for hole-doped high-\tc cuprates, strongly suggesting that the incomplete suppression of the AF order for $x>0.02$ is an essential feature of the hole-doped cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2004

Strong correlation between field-induced magnetism and superconductivity in Pr$_{0.89}$LaCe$_{0.11}$CuO$_{4}$

We report the local magnetic response of an electron-doped cuprate superconductor, Pr$_{0.89}$LaCe$_{0.11}$CuO$_{4}$ ($T_c\simeq26$ K), studied by muon spin rotation (\msr) over a field range from 200 Oe to 50 kOe. In the paramagnetic state, the muon Knight shift along the crystal c-axis ($K_μ^z$) is proportional to the in-plane susceptibility $χ_{ab}$. More surprisingly, $K_μ^z$ is strongly enhanced by the occurrence of superconductivity (below $\sim$40 kOe), changing its sign from positive to negative around $\sim1$ kOe with increasing field. This finding can be understood by considering the weak polarization of Pr ions due to superexchange interaction with the antiferromagnetic Cu sublattice, which coexists with superconductivity.

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arXiv2004

Molecular orbital excitations in cuprates

We report resonant inelastic x-ray scattering studies of electronic excitations in a wide variety of cuprate compounds. Specifically, we focus on the charge-transfer type excitation of an electron from a bonding molecular orbital to an antibonding molecular orbital in a copper oxygen plaquette. Both the excitation energy and the amount of dispersion are found to increase significantly as the copper oxygen bond-length is reduced. We also find that the estimated bond-length dependence of the hopping integral t_pd is much stronger than that expected from tight-binding theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2004

Site-Dilution in quasi one-dimensional antiferromagnet Sr2(Cu1-xPdx)O3: reduction of Neel Temperature and spatial distribution of ordered moment sizes

We investigate the Neel temperature of Sr2CuO3 as a function of the site dilution at the Cu (S=1/2) sites with Pd (S=0), utilizing the muon spin relaxation (muSR) technique. The Neel temperature, which is Tn=5.4K for the undoped system, becomes significantly reduced for less than one percent of doping Pd, giving a support for the previous proposal for the good one-dimensionality. The Pd concentration dependence of the Neel temperature is compared with a recent theoretical study (S. Eggert, I. Affleck and M.D.P. Horton, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 47202 (2002)) of weakly coupled one-dimensional antiferromagnetic chains of S=1/2 spins, and a quantitative agreement is found. The inhomogeneity of the ordered moment sizes is characterized by the muSR time spectra. We propose a model that the ordered moment size recovers away from the dopant S=0 sites with a recovery length of ξ= 150-200 sites. The origin of the finite recovery length ξfor the gapless S=1/2 antiferromagnetic chain is compared to the estimate based on the effective staggered magnetic field from the neighboring chains.

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arXiv2004

Expansion of Vortex Cores by Strong Electronic Correlation in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ at Low Magnetic Induction

The vortex core radius \rv, defined as the peak position of the supercurrent around the vortex, has been determined by muon spin rotation measurements in the mixed state of \lscox for $x=0.13$, 0.15, and 0.19. At lower doping (x=0.13 and 0.15), \rv(T) increases with decreasing temperature T, which is opposite to the behavior predicted by the conventional theory. Moreover, \rv(T\to0) is significantly larger than the Ginsburg-Landau coherence length determined by the upper critical field, and shows a clear tendency to decrease with increasing the doping x. These features can be qualitatively reproduced in a microscopic model involving antiferromagnetic electronic correlations.

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arXiv2004

In-plane optical conductivity of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$: Reduced superconducting condensate and residual Drude-like response

Temperature dependences of the optical spectra of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ with $x$=0.12 and 0.15 were carefully examined for a polarization parallel to the CuO$_2$-plane over a wide frequency range down to 8 cm$^{-1}$. Selection of well-characterized crystals enabled us to measure purely in-plane polarized spectra without any additional peak. The weight of superconducting (SC) condensate estimated from the missing area in $σ_1(ω$) well agrees with the estimate from the slope of $σ_2(ω$) vs 1/$ω$ plot, showing no evidence that the Ferrell-Glover-Tinkham sum-rule is violated in the optical spectrum. We demonstrate that the optically estimated SC condensate is much smaller than the value obtained from the $μ$SR measurement of magnetic penetration depth. We also find an anomalous increase of conductivity in sub-millimeter region towards $ω$=0 below $T_c$, which suggests the microscopic inhomogeneity in the superconducting state. Both observations are discussed in relation with the inhomogeneous electronic state that might be inherent to high-$T_c$ cuprates.

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arXiv2004

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of holon-antiholon continuum in SrCuO2

We report a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of charge excitations in the quasi-one-dimensional Mott insulator SrCuO2. We observe a continuum of low-energy excitations, in which a highly dispersive feature with a large sinusoidal dispersion (~1.1 eV) resides. We have also measured the optical conductivity, and studied the dynamic response of the extended Hubbard model with realistic parameters, using a dynamical density-matrix renormalization group method. In contrast to earlier work, we do not find a long-lived exciton, but rather these results suggest that the excitation spectrum comprises a holon-antiholon continuum together with a broad resonance.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2003

Two dimensional nature of superconductivity in intercalated layered systems Li$_{x}$HfNCl and Li$_{x}$ZrNCl: muon spin relaxation and magnetization measurements

We report muon spin relaxation ($μ$SR) and magnetization measurements, together with synthesis and characterization, of the Li-intercalated layered superconductors Li$_{x}$HfNCl and Li$_{x}$ZrNCl with/without co-intercalation of THF (tetrahydrofuran) or PC (propylene carbonate). The 3-dimensional (3-d) superfluid density $n_{s}/m^{*}$ (superconducting carrier density / effective mass), as well as the two dimensional superfluid density $n_{s2d}/m^{*}_{ab}$ (2-dimensional (2-d) area density of superconducting carriers / ab-plane effective mass), have been derived from the $μ$SR results of the magnetic-field penetration depth $λ_{ab}$ observed with external magnetic field applied perpendicular to the 2-d honeycomb layer of HfN / ZrN. In a plot of $T_{c}$ versus $n_{s2d}/m^{*}_{ab}$, most of the results lie close to the linear relationship found for underdoped high-$T_{c}$ cuprate (HTSC) and layered organic BEDT superconductors. In Li$_{x}$ZrNCl without THF intercalation, the superfluid density and $T_{c}$ for $x$ = 0.17 and 0.4 do not show much difference, reminiscent of $μ$SR results for some overdoped HTSC systems. Together with the absence of dependence of $T_{c}$ on average interlayer distance among ZrN / HfN layers, these results suggest that the 2-d superfluid density $n_{s2d}/m^{*}_{ab}$ is a dominant determining factor for $T_{c}$ in the intercalated nitride-chloride systems. We also report $μ$SR and magnetization results on depinning of flux vortices, and the magnetization results for the upper critical field $H_{c2}$ and the penetration depth $λ$. Reasonable agreement was obtained between $μ$SR and magnetization estimates of $λ$. We discuss the two dimensional nature of superconductivity in the nitride-chloride systems based on these results.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2003

Muon Spin Relaxation and Susceptibility Studies of Pure and Doped Spin 1/2 Kagomé-like system (Cu$_x$Zn$_{1-x}$)$_{3}$V$_{2}$O$_7$(OH)$_{2}$ 2H$_2$O

Muon spin relaxation ($μ$SR) and magnetic susceptibility measurements have been performed on the pure and diluted spin 1/2 kagomé system (Cu$_x$Zn$_{1-x}$)$_{3}$V$_{2}$O$_7$(OH)$_{2}$ 2H$_2$O. In the pure $x=1$ system we found a slowing down of Cu spin fluctuations with decreasing temperature towards $T \sim 1$ K, followed by slow and nearly temperature-independent spin fluctuations persisting down to $T$ = 50 mK, indicative of quantum fluctuations. No indication of static spin freezing was detected in either of the pure ($x$=1.0) or diluted samples. The observed magnitude of fluctuating fields indicates that the slow spin fluctuations represent an intrinsic property of kagomé network rather than impurity spins.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2003

Effect of a magnetic field on the spin- and charge-density wave order in La1.45Nd0.4Sr0.15CuO4

The spin-density wave (SDW) and charge-density wave (CDW) order in superconducting La1.45Nd0.4Sr0.15CuO4 were studied under an applied magnetic field using neutron and X-ray diffraction techniques. In zero field, incommensurate (IC) SDW order appears below ~ 40 K, which is characterized by neutron diffraction peaks at (1/2 +/- 0.134, 1/2 +/- 0.134, 0). The intensity of these IC peaks increases rapidly below T_Nd ~ 8 K due to an ordering of the Nd^3+ spins. The application of a 1 T magnetic field parallel to the c-axis markedly diminishes the intensity below T_Nd, while only a slight decrease in intensity is observed at higher temperatures for fields up to 7 T. Our interpretation is that the c-axis field suppresses the parasitic Nd^3+ spin order at the incommensurate wave vector without disturbing the stripe order of Cu^2+ spins. Consistent with this picture, the CDW order, which appears below 60 K, shows no change for magnetic fields up to 4 T. These results stand in contrast to the significant field-induced enhancement of the SDW order observed in superconducting La2-xSrxCuO4 with x ~ 0.12 and stage-4 La2CuO4+y. The differences can be understood in terms of the relative volume fraction exhibiting stripe order in zero field, and the collective results are consistent with the idea that suppression of superconductivity by vortices nucleates local patches of stripe order.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2002

New Josephson Plasma Modes in Underdoped YBa2Cu3O6.6 Induced by Parallel Magnetic Field

The c-axis reflectivity spectrum of underdoped YBa2Cu3O6.6 (YBCO) is measured below Tc=59K in parallel magnetic fields H//CuO2 up to 7T. Upon application of a parallel field, a new peak appears at finite frequency in the optical conductivity at the expense of suppression of c-axis condensate weight. We conclude that the dramatic change originates from different Josephson coupling strengths between bilayers with and without Josephson vortices. We find that the 400cm^-1 broad conductivity peak in YBCO gains the spectral weight under parallel magnetic field; this indicates that the condensate weight at ω=0 is distributed to the intra-bilayer mode as well as to the new optical Josephson mode.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2002

Muon spin relaxation studies of incommensurate magnetism and superconductivity in stage-4 La$_{2}$CuO$_{4.11}$ and La$_{1.88}$Sr$_{0.12}$CuO$_{4}$

This paper reports muon spin relaxation (MuSR) measurements of two single crystals of the title high-Tc cuprate systems where static incommensurate magnetism and superconductivity coexist. By zero-field MuSR measurements and subsequent analyses with simulations, we show that (1) the maximum ordered Cu moment size (0.36 Bohr magneton) and local spin structure are identical to those in prototypical stripe spin systems with the 1/8 hole concentration; (2) the static magnetism is confined to less than a half of the volume of the sample, and (3) regions with static magnetism form nano-scale islands with the size comparable to the in-plane superconducting coherence length. By transverse-field MuSR measurements, we show that Tc of these systems is related to the superfluid density, in the same way as observed in cuprate systems without static magnetism. We discuss a heuristic model involving percolation of these nanoscale islands with static magnetism as a possible picture to reconcile heterogeneity found by the present MuSR study and long-range spin correlations found by neutron scattering.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2001

Diagonal static spin correlation in the low temperature orthorhombic Pccn phase of La1.55Nd0.4Sr0.05CuO4

Elastic neutron scattering measurements have been performed on Nd, Sr co-doped La1.55Nd0.4Sr0.05CuO4, which exhibits a structural phase transition at Ts ~ 60K from the low temperature orthorhombic Bmab phase (labelled LTO1) to the low temperature orthorhombic Pccn phase (labelled LTO2). At low temperatures, well below Ts, elastic magnetic peaks are observed at the ``diagonal'' incommensurate (IC) positions (0, 1+/-0.055, 0), with modulation direction only along the orthorhombic b-axis just as in Nd-free La1.95Sr0.05CuO4. In the present study, the one-dimensionality of the IC modulation, which is naturally explained by a stripe model, is clearly demonstrated with our "single-domain" crystal. The temperature dependence of the IC peak intensity suggests a substantial contribution from the Nd3+ spins below ~3K. Consistent with this, the L dependence of the magnetic scattering is accurately accounted for by a model in which the contribution of the Nd3+ spins is explicitly included.

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arXiv1998

Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking Superconductivity in Sr2RuO4

We report muon spin relaxation measurements on the superconductor Sr2RuO4 that reveal the spontaneous appearance of an internal magnetic field below the transition temperature: the appearance of such a field indicates that the superconducting state in this material is characterized by the breaking of time-reversal symmetry. These results, combined with other symmetry considerations, suggest that superconductivity in Sr2RuO4 is of p-wave (odd-parity) type, analogous to superfluid 3He.

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arXiv1997

Observation of Spin Freezing in CaV4O9 and CaV2O5 by uSR

We have performed muon spin relaxation and susceptibility measurements of CaV_4O_9 and CaV_2O_5, systems in which spin gap-like behavior has been found. We observe spin freezing in the two compounds below 12K and 50K, respectively. Our results indicate the possibility that a substantial fraction of the of the vanadium magnetic moment is not in a spin singlet sate at low temperatures in either material.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1997

Reduction of ordered moment and Neel temperature of quasi one-dimensional antiferromagnets Sr2CuO3 and Ca2CuO3

We report elastic neutron diffraction and muon spin relaxation (muSR) measurements of the quasi one-dimensional antiferromagnets Sr2CuO3 and Ca2CuO3, which have extraordinarily reduced TN/J ratios. We observe almost resolution-limited antiferromagnetic Bragg reflections in Sr2CuO3 and obtain a reduced ordered moment size of ~0.06 \muB. We find that the ratio of ordered moment size μ(Ca2CuO3)/μ(Sr2CuO3)=1.5(1) roughly scales with their Neel temperatures, which suggests that the ordered moment size of quasi one-dimensional antiferromagnets decreases continuously in the limit of vanishing inter-chain interactions.

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