arXiv subjects

S. Uchida

Publications and source records attributed to S. Uchida.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2000

STM Studies of the Electronic Structure of Vortex Cores in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d

We report on low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies of the electronic structure of vortex cores in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d (BSCCO). At the vortex core center, an enhanced density-of-states (DOS) is observed at energies near 7 meV. Spectroscopic imaging at these energies reveals an exponential decay of these 'core states' with a decay length of 2.2(3) nm. The four-fold symmetry sometimes predicted for d-wave vortices is not seen in spectroscopic vortex images. A locally nodeless order parameter induced by the magnetic field may be consistent with these measurements.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Electronic Structure of La2-xSrxCuO4 in the Vicinity of the Superconductor-Insulator Transition

We report on the result of angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) study of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) from an optimally doped superconductor ($x=0.15$) to an antiferromagnetic insulator ($x=0$). Near the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) $x\sim 0.05$, spectral weight is transferred with hole doping between two coexisting components, suggesting a microscopic inhomogeneity of the doped-hole distribution. For the underdoped LSCO ($x\leq 0.12$), the dispersive band crossing the Fermi level becomes invisible in the $(0,0)-(π,π)$ direction unlike Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+y}$. These observations may be reconciled with the evolution of holes in the insulator into fluctuating stripes in the superconductor.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Local Magnetic Order vs. Superconductivity in a Layered Cuprate

We report on the phase diagram for charge-stripe order in La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4), determined by neutron and x-ray scattering studies and resistivity measurements. From an analysis of the in-plane resistivity motivated by recent nuclear-quadrupole-resonance studies, we conclude that the transition temperature for local charge ordering decreases monotonically with x, and hence that local antiferromagnetic order is uniquely correlated with the anomalous depression of superconductivity at x = 1/8. This result is consistent with theories in which superconductivity depends on the existence of charge-stripe correlations.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Nuclear Spin Relaxation in Hole Doped Two-Leg Ladders

The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate ($1/T_{1}$) has been measured in the single crystals of hole doped two-leg ladder compounds Sr$_{14-x}$Ca$_{x}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ and in the undoped parent material La$_6$Ca$_8$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$. Comparison of $1/T_{1}$ at the Cu and the two distinct oxygen sites revealed that the major spectral weight of low frequency spin fluctuations is located near $q \sim (π, π)$ for most of the temperature and doping ranges investigated. Remarkable difference in the temperature dependence of $1/T_1$ for the two oxygen sites in the heavily doped $x$=12 sample revealed reduction of singlet correlations between two legs in place of growing antiferromagnetic correlations along the leg direction with increasing temperature. Such behavior is most likely caused by the dissociation of bound hole pairs.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Fermi Surface and Band Dispersion in La2-xSrxCuO4

Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we have observed the band structure, Fermi surface and their doping dependences in La2-xSrxCuO4. The results reveal that the Fermi surface undergoes a dramatic change: it is hole-like and centered at k=(pi,pi) in underdoped (x = 0.1) and optimally doped (x = 0.15) samples as in other cuprates while it is electron-like and centered at (0,0) in heavily overdoped (x = 0.3) ones. The peak in the ARPES spectra near (pi/2,pi/2) is broad and weak unlike in other cuprates. In the underdoped and optimally doped samples, a superconducting gap (Delta = 10 - 15 meV) is observed on the Fermi surface near (pi,0).

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Anisotropic effect of field on the orthorhombic-to-tetragonal transition in the striped cuprate (La,Nd)_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4

The Nd-doped cuprate La_{2-y-x}Nd_ySr_xCuO_4 displays a first-order phase transition at T_d (= 74 K for x=0.10, y = 0.60) to a low-temperature tetragonal (LTT) phase. A magnetic field H applied || the a-axis leads to an increase in T_d, whereas T_d is decreased when H || c. These effects show that magnetic ordering involving both Nd and Cu spins plays a key role in driving the LTO-LTT transition. Related anisotropic effects are observed in the uniform susceptibility and the in-plane magnetoresistance.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Imaging the Effects of Individual Zinc Impurity Atoms on Superconductivity in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta

Although their crystal structures are complex, all high temperature superconductors contain some crystal planes consisting of only Cu and O atoms in a square lattice. Superconductivity is believed to originate from strongly interacting electrons in these CuO2 planes. Substitution of a single impurity atom at a Cu site creates a simple but powerful perturbation to these interactions. Detailed knowledge of the effects of such an impurity atom on the superconducting order parameter and on the quasi-particle local density of states (LDOS) could allow competing theories of high temperature superconductivity (HTSC) to be tested at the atomic scale. The fundamental implications of results from numerous bulk measurements on samples doped with impurity atoms could also be clarified with such data. Here we describe scanning tunneling microscopy studies of the effects of individual Zn impurity atoms located at the Cu site in the high-Tc superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta. Tunneling spectroscopy shows intense quasi-particle scattering resonances at the Zn sites, coincident with strong suppression of superconductivity within about 1.5 nm. Imaging of the quasi-particle LDOS at these sites reveals the long sought four-fold symmetric "quasi-particle cloud" aligned with the d-wave gap nodes. Several unexpected phenomena, which can shed new light on the atomic-scale response of HTSC to a probe impurity atom, are also observed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Resistive upper critical fields and irreversibility lines of optimally-doped high-T_c cuprates

We present the resistively-determined upper critical field H^ρ_{c2}(T) and the irreversibility lines H^ρ_{irr}(T) of various high-T_c cuprates, deduced from measurements in 61-T pulsed magnetic fields applied parallel to the c-axis. The SHAPE of both H^ρ_{c2}(T) and H^ρ_{irr}(T) depends monotonically on the anisotropy of the material and none of the samples show saturation of H^ρ(T) at low temperatures. The anomalous positive curvature, d^2 H^ρ/dT^2 > 0, is the strongest in materials with the largest normal-state anisotropy, regardless of whether anisotropy is varied by changing the carrier concentration or by comparing a variety of optimally-doped compounds.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Angle-resolved photoemission study of untwinned PrBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$: undoped CuO$_2$ plane and doped CuO$_3$ chain

We have performed an angle-resolved photoemission study on untwinned PrBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$, which has low resistivity but does not show superconductivity. We have observed a dispersive feature with a band maximum around ($π$/2,$π$/2), indicating that this band is derived from the undoped CuO$_2$ plane. We have observed another dispersive band exhibiting one-dimensional character, which we attribute to signals from the doped CuO$_3$ chain. The overall band dispersion of the one-dimensional band agrees with the prediction of $t-J$ model calculation with parameters relevant to cuprates except that the intensity near the Fermi level is considerably suppressed in the experiment.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Charge stripes seen with x-rays in La_(1.45)Nd_(0.4)Sr_(0.15)CuO_(4)

Superstructure reflections due to the ordering of holes into stripes in La_(1.45)Nd_(0.4)Sr_(0.15)CuO_4 have been studied with high energy x-ray diffraction. These reflections have been observed clearly for the first time in a sample which is superconducting at low temperatures (T_c = 10 K). The stripe peaks vanish above 62(5) K whereas the magnetic signal of the stripe ordering which has been seen with neutrons before is already suppressed at 45 K. Our results confirm that the ordering of spins and holes is driven by the charges as it is found in the case of La_(1.6-x)Nd_(0.4)Sr_(x)CuO_(4) at the doping level of x = 0.12.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Charge Segregation and Antiferromagnetism in High-Tc Superconductors

Local antiferromagnetism coexists with superconductivity in the cuprates. Charge segregation provides a way to reconcile these properties. Direct evidence for modulated spin and charge densities has been found in neutron and X-ray scattering studies of Nd-doped La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4). Here we discuss the nature of the modulation, and present some new results for a Zn-doped sample. Some of the open questions concerning the connections between segregation and superconductivity are described.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Glassy nature of stripe ordering in La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4)

We present the results of neutron-scattering studies on various aspects of crystalline and magnetic structure in single crystals of La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4) with x=0.12 and 0.15. In particular, we have reexamined the degree of stripe order in an x=0.12 sample. Measurements of the width for an elastic magnetic peak show that it saturates at a finite value below 30 K, corresponding to a spin-spin correlation length of 200 A. A model calculation indicates that the differing widths of magnetic and (previously reported) charge-order peaks, together with the lack of commensurability, can be consistently explained by disorder in the stripe spacing. Above 30 K, the width of the nominally elastic signal begins to increase. Interpreting the signal as critical scattering from slowly fluctuating spins, the temperature dependence of the width is consistent with renormalized classical behavior of a 2-dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Inelastic scattering measurements show that incommensurate spin excitations survive at and above 50 K, where the elastic signal is neglible. We also report several results related to the LTO-to-LTT transition.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

Effects of biquadratic exchange on the spectrum of elementary excitations in spin ladders

We investigate the influence of biquadratic exchange interactions on the low-lying excitations of a S=1/2-ladder using perturbation theory, numerical diagonalization of finite systems and exact results for ladders with matrix product ground states. We consider in particular the combination of biquadratic exchange interactions corresponding to ring exchange on the basic ladder plaquette. We find that a moderate amount of ring exchange reduces the spin gap substantially and makes equal bilinear exchange on legs and rungs consistent with experimentally observed spectra.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

Doping Dependent Density of States and Pseudogap Behavior in La2-xSrxCuO4

We have made a high-resolution photoemission study of La2-xSrxCuO4 in a wide hole concentration (x) range from a heavily overdoped metal to an undoped insulator. As x decreases, the spectral density of states at the chemical potential (μ) is suppressed with an x-dependence similar to the suppression of the electronic specific heat coefficient. In the underdoped region, the spectra show a pseudogap structure on the energy scale of 0.1 eV. The width of the pseudogap increases with decreasing x following the x-dependence of the characteristic temperatures of the magnetic susceptibility and the Hall coefficient.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

Unconventional Transition from Metallic to Insulating Resistivity in the Spin-ladder Compound (Sr,Ca)$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$

Spin-ladder compounds make interesting analogs of the high-temperature superconductors, because they contain layers of nearly one-dimensional "ladders" consisting of a square array of copper and oxygen atoms. Increasing the number of legs in the ladders provides a step-wise approach toward the two-dimensional copper-oxygen plane, that structure believed to be a key to high temperature superconductivity. Short-range spin correlations in ladders have been predicted to lead to formation of hole pairs favorable for superconductivity, once enough holes are introduced onto the ladders by doping. Indeed, superconductivity has been discovered in the two-leg ladder compound (Sr,Ca)$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ under high pressure. Here we show that charge transport in the non-superconducting state of (Sr,Ca)$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ shares three distinct regimes in common with high-temperature superconductors, including an unexplained insulating behavior at low temperatures in which the resistivity increases as the logarithm of the temperature. These observations suggest that the logarithmic divergence arises from a new localization mechanism common to the ladder compounds and the high-temperature superconductors, which may arise from nearly one-dimensional charge transport in the presence of a spin gap.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

Manifestation of spin-charge separation in the dynamic dielectric response of one--dimensional Sr2CuO3

We have determined the dynamical dielectric response of a one-dimensional, correlated insulator by carrying out electron energy-loss spectroscopy on Sr2CuO3 single crystals. The observed momentum and energy dependence of the low-energy features, which correspond to collective transitions across the gap, are well described by an extended one-band Hubbard model with moderate nearest neighbor Coulomb interaction strength. An exciton-like peak appears with increasing momentum transfer. These observations provide experimental evidence for spin-charge separation in the relevant excitations of this compound, as theoretically expected for the one-dimensional Hubbard model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1997

Cu-O network dependent core hole screening in low-dimensional cuprate systems: a high-resolution x-ray photoemission study

We present an experimental study of the dynamics of holes in the valence bands of 0, 1, and 2 dimensional undoped model cuprates, as expressed via the screening of a Cu 2p core hole. The response depends strongly upon the dimensionality and the details of the Cu-O-Cu network geometry and clearly goes beyond the present theoretical state-of-the-art description within the three-band d-p model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1997

Magnetic excitations and structural change in the S=1/2 quasi-one-dimensional magnet Sr_{14-x}Y_{x}Cu_{24}O_{41} (0<x<1)

Neutron scattering measurements have been performed on the S=1/2 quasi-one-dimensional system Sr_{14-x}Y_{x}Cu_{24}O_{41}, which has both simple chains and two-leg ladders of copper ions. We observed that when a small amount of yttrium is substituted for strontium, which is expected to reduce the number of holes, the dimerized state and the structure in the chain are changed drastically. The inelastic peaks originating from the dimerized state of the chain becomes broader in energy but not in momentum space. This implies that the dimerized state becomes unstable but the spin correlations are unchanged with yttrium substitution. Furthermore, it was observed that nuclear Bragg peak intensities originating from the chain show strong temperature and x dependence, which suggests that the chains slide along the c axis as temperature and x are varied.

cond-mat.str-el↗