Unconventional short-range structural fluctuations in cuprate superconductors

Understanding the relationship between structural and electronic properties is of fundamental importance in the study of quantum materials. In particular, the connection between structural inhomogeneity and electronic properties in the cuprate superconductors has remained unclear. Our neutron and X-ray scattering experiments of La_2-xSr_xCuO₄ and Tl₂Ba₂CuO_6+δ reveal short-range orthorhombic fluctuations across the temperature-doping phase diagram, including for nominally tetragonal compositions [1]. The measured intensity exhibits universal exponential scaling in relative (rather than reduced) temperature, analogous to recent findings for the superconducting precursor of cuprates [2,3,4] and other oxides [5]. Our most recent neutron and X-ray scattering experiments extend these findings to higher temperatures and additional doping levels. These results point to the pivotal relevance of inherent “hidden” correlated structural inhomogeneity to the emergence of superconductivity in the cuprates.

[1] D. Pelc et al., arXiv:2103.05482 (2022)

[2] D. Pelc et al., Nat. Commun. 9, 4327 (2018)

[3] G. Yu et al., Phys. Rev. B. 99, 214502 (2019)

[4] P. Popcevic et al., npj Quant. Mater. 3, 42 (2018)

[5] D. Pelc et al., Nat. Commun. 10, 2729 (2019)

Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through the University of Minnesota Center for Quantum Materials under Grant No. DE-SC0016371.