Tadashi Adachi

The ability to efficiently control charge and spin in the cuprate high-temperature superconductors is crucial for fundamental research and underpins technological development. Here, we explore the tunability of magnetism, superconductivity, and crystal structure in the stripe phase of the cuprate La Ba CuO , with = 0.115 and 0.135, by employing temperature-dependent (down to 400 mK) muon-spin rotation and AC susceptibility, as well as X-ray scattering experiments under compressive uniaxial stress in the CuO plane. A sixfold increase of the three-dimensional (3D) superconducting critical temperature and a full recovery of the 3D phase coherence is observed in both samples with the application of extremely low uniaxial stress of 0.1 GPa. This finding demonstrates the removal of the well-known 1/8-anomaly of cuprates by uniaxial stress. On the other hand, the spin-stripe order temperature as well as the magnetic fraction at 400 mK show only a modest decrease under stress. Moreover, the onset temperatures of 3D superconductivity and spin-stripe order are very similar in the large stress regime. However, strain produces an inhomogeneous suppression of the spin-stripe order at elevated temperatures. Namely, a substantial decrease of the magnetic volume fraction and a full suppression of the low-temperature tetragonal structure is found under stress, which is a necessary condition for the development of the 3D superconducting phase with optimal . Our results evidence a remarkable cooperation between the long-range static spin-stripe order and the underlying crystalline order with the three-dimensional fully coherent superconductivity. Overall, these results suggest that the stripe- and the SC order may have a common physical mechanism.

To investigate proposed ferromagnetic fluctuations in the so-called single-layer Bi-2201 and La-214 high-Tc cuprates, we performed magnetization and electrical resistivity measurements using single-layer Tl-2201 cuprates Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ and La-214 La2−xSrxCuO4 in the heavily overdoped regime. Magnetization of Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ and La2−xSrxCuO4 exhibited the tendency to be saturated in high magnetic fields at low temperatures, suggesting the precursor behavior toward the formation of a ferromagnetic order. It was found that the power of temperature n obtained from the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity is ~4/3 and ~5/3 for Bi-2201 and La2−xSrxCuO4, respectively, and is ~4/3 at high temperatures and ~5/3 at low temperatures in Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ. These results suggest that two- and three-dimensional ferromagnetic fluctuations exist in Bi-2201 and La2−xSrxCuO4, respectively. In Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ, it is suggested that the dimension of ferromagnetic fluctuations is two at high temperatures and three at low temperatures, respectively. The dimensionality of ferromagnetic fluctuations is understood in terms of the dimensionality of the crystal structure and the bonding of atoms in the blocking layer.

The magnetic hysteresis curve can provide information about magnetic properties, particle size, and its distribution. For superparamagnetic materials, the characteristics of the hysteresis curve are very typical, that is, Hc is equal to zero with a certain Ms value related to particle size in the order of nanometers. Here, we report the analysis of the magnetization hysteresis curve by applying a modified Langevin equation with and without a log-normal distribution for nearly superparamagnetic Fe3O4 and Fe3O4 encapsulated by SiO2 (Fe3O4–SiO2). To study the reliability of the modified Langevin equation, we compared the particle size values obtained from fittings analysis of the modified Langevin equation with those obtained from the TEM measurement. It was found that particle size from TEM measurement for Fe3O4 and Fe3O4–SiO2 is 11 and 14 nm, respectively. These values had a very high match with the particle size obtained from fitting analysis of the modified Langevin equation with or without a log-normal distribution, which is 12.6 and 12.9 nm for Fe3O4 and 13.8 and 14.5 nm for Fe3O4–SiO2, respectively. The fitting results of the modified Langevin equation with a log-normal distribution showed a value closer to the measurement results. By using the modified Langevin equation with a log-normal distribution, it was also obtained that the probability density function for Fe3O4 was 20.69% and that for Fe3O4–SiO2 was 0.55%. It was concluded that the modified Langevin equation with and without log-normal distribution was able to be used to obtain the particle size and its distribution for nearly superparamagnetic samples.