Abstract
The pseudogap regime of high-temperature cuprates harbours diverse manifestations of electronic ordering whose exact nature and universality remain debated. Here, we show that the short-ranged charge order recently reported in the normal state of YBa2Cu3Oy corresponds to a truly static modulation of the charge density. We also show that this modulation impacts on most electronic properties, that it appears jointly with intra-unit-cell nematic, but not magnetic, order, and that it exhibits differences with the charge density wave observed at lower temperatures in high magnetic fields. These observations prove mostly universal, they place new constraints on the origin of the charge density wave and they reveal that the charge modulation is pinned by native defects. Similarities with results in layered metals such as NbSe2, in which defects nucleate halos of incipient charge density wave at temperatures above the ordering transition, raise the possibility that order–parameter fluctuations, but no static order, would be observed in the normal state of most cuprates if disorder were absent.
Highlights
The pseudogap regime of high-temperature cuprates harbours diverse manifestations of electronic ordering whose exact nature and universality remain debated
Since the charge ordering transition temperature Tcharge can be as high as the superconducting transition Tc in zero field[12,13,15], the observed order clearly emanates from charge density wave (CDW) correlations developing in the normal state
That the increase of dnquad has a similar Tonset and temperature dependence as the X-ray diffraction (XRD) intensity (Fig. 4) shows that the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) line is broadened by the CDW-type modulation and not by nanoscale inhomogeneity of the hole doping
Summary
The pseudogap regime of high-temperature cuprates harbours diverse manifestations of electronic ordering whose exact nature and universality remain debated. We show that this modulation impacts on most electronic properties, that it appears jointly with intra-unit-cell nematic, but not magnetic, order, and that it exhibits differences with the charge density wave observed at lower temperatures in high magnetic fields. Since the charge ordering transition temperature Tcharge can be as high as the superconducting transition Tc in zero field[12,13,15], the observed order clearly emanates from charge density wave (CDW) correlations developing in the normal state. Subsequent X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments[16,17,18,19,20] have found (incommensurate and short-ranged) CDW correlations far above Tc and they have confirmed their competition with superconductivity These results raise critical questions for understanding electronic properties in the pseudogap regime and the superconductivity that emerges from it. What is the connection between the CDW modulation at low temperatures/high fields and that in the normal state and/or at low fields? Does the pseudogap regime host dynamic CDW correlations (a ‘fluctuating CDW order’) or a thermodynamic CDW phase? How does this CDW relate to the nematic and magnetic orders claimed to occur near or above the CDW onset2,3,10,21?
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