139La NMR investigation of the charge and spin order in a La1.885Sr0.115CuO4 single crystal
Abstract
139La NMR is suited for investigations into magnetic properties of La2CuO4 -based cuprates in the vicinity of their magnetic instabilities, owing to the modest hyperfine interactions between 139La nuclear spins and Cu electron spins. We report comprehensive 139La NMR measurements on a single-crystal sample of high-Tc superconductor La1.885Sr0.115CuO4 in a broad temperature range across the charge and spin order transitions (Tcharge≃80 K, Tspinneutron≃Tc=30 K). From the high-precision measurements of the linewidth for the nuclear spin Iz=+1 /2 to -1 /2 central transition, we show that paramagnetic line broadening sets in precisely at Tcharge due to enhanced spin correlations within the CuO2 planes. Additional paramagnetic line broadening ensues below ∼35 K, signaling that Cu spins in some segments of CuO2 planes are on the verge of three-dimensional magnetic order. A static hyperfine magnetic field arising from ordered Cu moments along the a b plane, however, begins to develop only below Tspinμ S R=15 -20 K, where earlier muon spin rotation measurements detected Larmor precession for a small volume fraction (∼20 % ) of the sample. Based on the measurement of 139La nuclear-spin-lattice relaxation rate 1 /T1 , we also show that charge order triggers enhancement of low-frequency Cu spin fluctuations inhomogeneously; a growing fraction of 139La sites is affected by enhanced low-frequency spin fluctuations toward the eventual magnetic order, whereas a diminishing fraction continues to exhibit a behavior analogous to the optimally superconducting phase even below Tcharge. These 139La NMR results corroborate our recent 63Cu NMR observation that a very broad, anomalous winglike signal gradually emerges below Tcharge, whereas the normally behaving, narrower main peak is gradually wiped out [T. Imai et al., Phys. Rev. B 96, 224508 (2017), 10.1103/PhysRevB.96.224508]. Furthermore, we show that the enhancement of low-energy spin excitations in the low-temperature regime below Tspinneutron(≃Tc ) depends strongly on the magnitude and orientation of the applied magnetic field.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review B
- Pub Date:
- February 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevB.97.064511
- Bibcode:
- 2018PhRvB..97f4511A