Magnetic field reveals vanishing Hall response in the normal state of stripe-ordered cuprates.

Shi, Zhenzhong; Baity, P G; Terzic, J; Pokharel, Bal K; Sasagawa, T; Popović, Dragana · Nat Commun · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The origin of the weak insulating behavior of the resistivity, i.e. [Formula: see text], revealed when magnetic fields (H) suppress superconductivity in underdoped cuprates has been a longtime mystery. Surprisingly, the high-field behavior of the resistivity observed recently in charge- and spin-stripe-ordered La-214 cuprates suggests a metallic, as opposed to insulating, high-field normal state. Here we report the vanishing of the Hall coefficient in this field-revealed normal state for all [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the zero-field superconducting transition temperature. Our measurements demonstrate that this is a robust fundamental property of the normal state of cuprates with intertwined orders, exhibited in the previously unexplored regime of T and H. The behavior of the high-field Hall coefficient is fundamentally different from that in other cuprates such as YBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>6+x</sub> and YBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>4</sub>O<sub>8</sub>, and may imply an approximate particle-hole symmetry that is unique to stripe-ordered cuprates. Our results highlight the important role of the competing orders in determining the normal state of cuprates.