The microscopic structure of charge density waves in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6.54 revealed by X-ray diffraction

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: Charge density wave (CDW) order appears throughout the underdoped high-temperature cuprate superconductors, but the underlying symmetry breaking and the origin of the CDW remain unclear. We use X-ray diffraction to determine the microscopic structure of the CDWs in an archetypical cuprate YBa2Cu3O6.54 at its superconducting transition temperature ∼ 60 K. We find that the CDWs in this material break the mirror symmetry of the CuO2 bilayers. The ionic displacements in the CDWs have two components, which are perpendicular and parallel to the CuO2 planes, and are out of phase with each other. The planar oxygen atoms have the largest displacements, perpendicular to the CuO2 planes. Our results allow many electronic properties of the underdoped cuprates to be understood. For instance, the CDWs will lead to local variations in the electronic structure, giving an explicit explanation of density-wave states with broken symmetry observed in scanning tunnelling microscopy and soft X-ray measurements.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10064

Authors: E. M. Forgan, E. Blackburn, A. T. Holmes, A. K. R. Briffa, J. Chang, L. Bouchenoire, S. D. Brown, Ruixing Liang, D. Bonn, W. N. Hardy, N. B. Christensen, M. V. Zimmermann, M. Hücker, S. M. Hayden

Institutions: University of Birmingham, University of Zurich, University of Liverpool, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, University of British Columbia, Technical University of Denmark, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Bristol

Language: English

Topic: Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism

Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $5,720

Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, DanScatt, Office of Science, Forsknings- og Innovationsstyrelsen, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education, Basic Energy Sciences, Argonne National Laboratory

OpenAlex ID: W2196378695