# NEUTRON SCATTERING STUDY OF ELASTIC MAGNETIC SIGNALS IN SUPERCONDUCTING La1.94Sr0.06CuO4

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## Abstract

Recent neutron-scattering experiments on La<sub>2-x</sub>Sr<sub>x</sub>CuO<sub>4</sub> single crystals by Wakimoto et al. have revealed that elastic magnetic peaks appear at low temperatures in both insulating $`(x=0.020.05)`$ and superconducting $`(x=0.06)`$ samples. We have carried out further investigations particularly on the elastic incommensurate peaks for $`x=0.06`$, and found that the integrated intensity drastically changes across the low temperature insulator-superconductor boundary; the intensity of $`x=0.06`$ is 4 times smaller than that of $`x=0.05`$, while the intensity in the insulating region stays constant.

Keywords: A. Superconductors, B. Crystal growth, C. Neutron scattering, D. Magnetic properties, Superconductivity

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The 2-1-4 type cuprate shows various magnetic and electronic properties with changing charge carriers introduced in the CuO<sub>2</sub> planes. In the La<sub>2-x</sub>Sr<sub>x</sub>CuO<sub>4</sub> system, long-range three-dimensional (3D) antiferromagnetic (AF) order destroyed at the hole concentration $`x=0.02`$ and spin-glass (SG) behavior appears in the region of $`0.02x0.05`$. With further doping, the system shows superconductivity for $`0.06x0.25`$ at low temperatures. Throughout the superconducting region, inelastic magnetic peaks are observed at incommensurate positions around $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ by neutron scattering experiments, suggesting strong correlations between the dynamical spin fluctuations and the superconductivity. On the other hand, elastic magnetic peaks are observed at low temperatures in the both the insulating and superconducting regions. In the superconducting region, sharp-$`q`$ elastic peaks are observed at incommensurate positions for $`x=0.12`$, where the superconductivity is slightly suppressed (1/8 problem). In the insulating region, Keimer et al. and Wakimoto et al.  observed a commensurate magnetic peak. Wakimoto et al. established that the elastic peak exhibits fundamental changes at the insulator-superconductor boundary; the elastic commensurate peak becomes broader with increasing $`x`$ in the insulating region and rapidly sharpens in the superconducting region. They also discovered new incommensurate elastic peaks at $`x=0.05`$, near the lower critical concentration for superconductivity, which positions are 45 rotated around $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ from those of superconducting samples. Although such remarkable changes appear at the boundary, the SG transition temperatures determined by systematic $`\mu `$SR study appear to fall on a continuous universal curve for $`0.02x0.10`$.

It becomes increasingly important to study the elastic component systematically from the insulating to the superconducting region in order to clarify the relation between the static magnetic correlations and the superconductivity. We have performed systematic neutron-scattering experiments for $`0.03x0.06`$, in particular focusing on changes of the magnetic properties at the insulator-superconductor boundary. In the present paper, we report results for $`x=0.06`$ and discuss the $`x`$-dependence of the elastic peak intensity referring to the results for $`x=0.03,0.04`$ and $`0.05`$ reported in Ref..

A single crystal of $`x=0.06`$, whose size is 6 mm in diameter and 25 mm in length, was grown by an improved travelling-solvent floating-zone method at Tohoku University. The growth conditions are the same as those used for the $`x=0.03,0.04`$ and $`0.05`$ crystals reported in Ref.. We annealed the $`x=0.06`$ crystal in flowing oxygen at 900 C for 12 hours before experiments. We measured the Meisner signal using a SQUID magnetometer with the applied field of 10 Oe parallel to the CuO<sub>2</sub> plane after a cooling process in zero field. Neutron-scattering experiments were performed on the HER cold neutron triple-axis spectrometer located at the JAERI JRR-3M reactor. To study the elastic component in the $`x=0.06`$ crystal, we utilized an incident neutron energy of 5 meV to obtain high energy resolution ($`0.25`$ meV) together with a Be filter to exclude higher order contaminations. The crystal was oriented so as to give the $`(hk0)`$ zone, and sealed in an Al can filled with He gas. In the present paper, we use the tetragonal $`I4/mmm`$ crystallographic notation.

Figure 1 shows the Meisner signal of the $`x=0.06`$ crystal. The onset temperature of superconductivity

$`T_c`$(onset) is 12 K which is consistent with the $`x`$-dependence of $`T_c`$(onset) reported in Ref., suggesting that the Sr concentration of the crystal is indeed $`0.06`$.

Figure 2 indicates peak profiles along the scan trajectory shown in the inset. In Fig.2(a), closed and open symbols indicate data at 1.6 K and 40 K respectively. Although the data at 40 K are contaminated around $`q=0.06`$, there exist clear differences between the profiles at the two temperatures. To analyze the incommensurate elastic peaks excluding the contamination, we calculated the net intensity by subtracting the 40 K data from the 1.6 K data. Figure 2(b) shows the resultant net intensity. The solid line is the result of fitting using a double Lorentzian function consisting of two Lorentzians which are symmetric around $`q=0`$. From the fitting result, the incommensurability of the elastic incommensurate peaks is $`0.048(\pm 0.005)`$ r.l.u., which is very close to that of the inelastic incommensurate peaks.

To investigate changes of the magnetic properties across the boundary between the insulating and superconducting region, we plot the $`x`$-dependence of the integrated intensity of elastic magnetic peaks as shown in Fig.3. The horizontal axis indicates the integrated intensity normalized by sample volume. The integration was carried out for all elastic magnetic peaks around $`(\pi ,\pi )`$. Note that the data for $`x=0.03,0.04`$ and $`0.05`$ referred from Ref. are calculated from the results obtained using the SPINS spectrometer in the identical instrumental configuration. Since the HER data of the $`x=0.05`$ crystal in the identical instrumental configuration used in the present study are also reported in Ref., we can make the necessary corrections for the $`x=0.06`$ data. As clearly shown in Fig.3, the elastic magnetic intensity suddenly decreases across the phase boundary at $`x_c0.06`$. This fact strongly suggest a competing relation between the superconductivity and the static magnetic correlations.

On the other hand, the integrated intensity of the elastic magnetic peaks in the $`x=0.12`$ sample is half of that for $`x=0.06`$ while the peak shape is clearly different from that of the $`x=0.06`$ sample; the elastic peaks in the $`x=0.12`$ sample are sharper than those for $`x=0.06`$. Note that the onset $`T_c`$ at $`x=0.12`$ is 31 K, higher than that of $`x=0.06`$. Taking account of this difference of $`T_c`$, we speculate that the magnetic moment which contributes to the elastic magnetic peaks decreases as $`T_c`$ increases and the static correlation length becomes larger near $`x=1/8`$. However it is necessary to study systematically the behavior in the intermediate concentrations between $`x=0.06`$ and $`0.12`$ to clarify the relation between the superconductivity and the static magnetic correlations in more detail.

We gratefully acknowledge H. Fukuyama, J. M. Tranquada, V. Emery and H. Kimura for their invaluable discussions and suggestions. The present work was supported by the US-Japan Cooperative Research Program on Neutron Scattering. The work at Tohoku was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of Monbusho and the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Techonology (CREST) Project sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Corporation. The work at MIT was supported by the NSF under Grant No. DMR97-04532 and by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under Award No. DMR94-00334. The work at Brookhaven National Laboratory was carried out under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886, Division of Material Science, U. S. Department of Energy. The work at SPINS is based upon activities supported by the National Science Foundation under Agreement No. DMR-9423101.