We report an inelastic-neutron-scattering and muon-spin-relaxation study of the effect of 2% spinless (Zn) impurities on the magnetic order and dynamics of YBa2Cu3O6.6, an underdoped high-temperature superconductor that exhibits a prominent spin-pseudogap in its normal state. Zn substitution induces static magnetic order at low temperatures and triggers a large-scale spectral-weight redistribution from the magnetic resonant mode at 38 meV into uniaxial, incommensurate spin excitations with energies well below the spin-pseudogap. These observations indicate a competition between incommensurate magnetic order and superconductivity close to a quantum critical point. Comparison to prior data on La2−xSrxCuO4 suggests that this behavior is universal for the layered copper oxides and analogous to impurity-induced magnetic order in one-dimensional quantum magnets.
@article{arxiv.1004.2139,
title = {Incommensurate magnetic order and dynamics induced by spinless impurities in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.6}$},
author = {A. Suchaneck and V. Hinkov and D. Haug and L. Schulz and C. Bernhard and A. Ivanov and K. Hradil and C. T. Lin and P. Bourges and B. Keimer and Y. Sidis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.2139},
year = {2015}
}