Abstract
Understanding the behavior of the electrons in the high-temperature copper oxide superconductors remains a challenging problem. An important class of models1,2,3,4,5 argues that the distribution of electronic charge and spin is not homogeneous: rather, spin and charge adopt a dynamic arrangement in which the spins on the copper form antiferromagnetic stripes, separated by domain walls containing the charge1,2,3,4,5. The dynamic behavior of the spins has been extensively studied by neutron scattering, and recent results have shown that the low-frequency fluctuations for different classes of materials display a universal spatial behavior that is consistent with the stripe picture. But arguments for the existence of the stripe phases are difficult to sustain without a demonstration that charge is distributed in the domain walls. Here we report phonon measurements for the YBa2Cu3O7-x high-temperature superconductors, which reveal the presence of charge fluctuations. The inferred periodicity is that expected if the charge is located in the domain walls separating the spin stripes. Our results therefore provide strong support for the existence of a dynamic stripe phase in the high-temperature superconductors.
Recommended Citation
H. A. Mook and F. Dogan, "Charge fluctuations in YBa2Cu3O7-x high-temperature superconductors," Nature, vol. 401, no. 6749, pp. 145 - 148, Springer, Nature Publishing Group UK, Sep 1999.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/43629
Department(s)
Materials Science and Engineering
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1476-4687, 0028-0836
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2026 Spring Nature Limited, All rights reserved
Publication Date
1999-09-09
Comments
Acknowledgement: We thank W.-T. Lee and J. L. Robertson for discussions on phonon dispersion in striped phases, and P. Dai for discussions on magnetic excitations. The work at Oak Ridge was supported by the US Department of Energy.