Boschini, F.; Minola, M.; Sutarto, R.; Schierle, E.; Bluschke, M.; Das, S.; Yang, Y.; Michiardi, M.; Shao, Y.C.; Feng, X.; Ono, S.; Zhong, R.D.; Schneeloch, J.A.; Gu, G.D.; Weschke, E.; He, F.; Chuang, Y.D.; Keimer, B.; Damascelli, A.; Frano, A.; da Silva Neto, E.H.: Dynamic electron correlations with charge order wavelength along all directions in the copper oxide plane. Nature Communications 12 (2021), p. 597/1-8
10.1038/s41467-020-20824-7
Open Access Version
Abstract:
In strongly correlated systems the strength of Coulomb interactions between electrons, relative to their kinetic energy, plays a central role in determining their emergent quantum mechanical phases. We perform resonant x-ray scattering on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ, a prototypical cuprate superconductor, to probe electronic correlations within the CuO2 plane. We discover a dynamic quasi-circular pattern in the x-y scattering plane with a radius that matches the wave vector magnitude of the well-known static charge order. Along with doping- and temperature-dependent measurements, our experiments reveal a picture of charge order competing with superconductivity where short-range domains along x and y can dynamically rotate into any other in-plane direction. This quasi-circular spectrum, a hallmark of Brazovskii-type fluctuations, has immediate consequences to our understanding of rotational and translational symmetry breaking in the cuprates. We discuss how the combination of short- and long-range Coulomb interactions results in an effective non-monotonic potential that may determine the quasi-circular pattern.