Scientific Achievement
Researchers in the Ultrafast Materials Science program used a state-of-the-art spin detector that unveiled a universal spin momentum locking across the entire phase diagram of hole-doped cuprate superconductors, where the spin texture vanishes when the local inversion symmetry of the octahedra is removed.
Significance and Impact
Showcases the crucial interplay between spin orbit coupling and local lattice symmetry in driving the unusual properties of unconventional superconductors, providing a general framework to also understand other strongly correlated materials.
Research Details
- A state-of-the-art home-built spin electron analyzer with unprecedented energy resolution enabled new insight into spin resolved band structure of cuprates
- Engineered lead substituted samples to remove the structural distortions of the octahedra and study the changes in the spin texture
Publication Details
H. Luo, K. Currier, Ch. Y. Lin, K. Gotlieb, R. Mori, H. Eisaki, A. Fedorov, Z. Hussain, A. Lanzara, Communications Materials (2024).
Work was performed both in part at the Advanced Light Source.
