Incommensurate Magnetic Order and Dynamics Induced by Spinless Impurities in YBa2Cu3O6.6

Abstract

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.