Prof. Stephen M. Hayden
University of Bristol

Abstract: Critical spin fluctuations across the superconducting dome in La2-xSrxCuO4

Overdoped cuprate superconductors are strange metals above their superconducting transition temperature. In such materials, the electrical resistivity has a strong linear dependence on temperature (T) and electrical current is not carried by electron quasiparticles as in conventional metals. Here we demonstrate [1] that the strange metal behaviour co-exists with strongly temperature-dependent critical spin fluctuations showing dynamical scaling across the cuprate phase diagram. Our neutron scattering observations and the strange metal behaviour are consistent with a spin density wave quantum phase transition in a metal with spatial disorder in the tuning parameter. Numerical computations using a theory of spin density waves in a disordered metal yield an extended `Griffiths phase' with scaling properties in agreement with experimental observations. Thus we establish that low-energy spin excitations and spatial disorder are central to the strange metal behaviour.

[1] Radaelli, J., Patel, A.A., Zhu, M. et al. Critical spin fluctuations across the superconducting dome in La2−xSrxCuO4. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71319-w

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Prof. Stephen M. HaydenUniversity of Bristol

Prof. Stephen M. Hayden
University of Bristol