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# Muon spin relaxation studies of incommensurate magnetism and superconductivity in stage-4 La2CuO4.11 and La1.88Sr0.12CuO4

## I Introduction

The interplay between superconductivity and magnetism is one of the central issues of high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity (HTSC), which has been extensively studied both experimentally and theoretically.. In particular, dynamic \[2-8\] and static \[9-16\] spin correlations with incommensurate wave vectors have been found by neutron scattering. These, as well as X-ray photoelectron studies \[17-19\], have been discussed in terms of a “stripe” modulation of the spin and charge densities \[20-23\]. Yet it has not been clear whether static magnetism supports or competes with superconductivity, or if the magnetism and superconductivity coexist in the same microscopic regions of the CuO2 planes or in different regions. While neutron measurements make it clear that long range magnetic order exists, the Bragg peak intensity integrates over the sample volume and is not, therefore, sensitive to microscopic spatial variations in the order parameter.

Muon spin relaxation ($`\mu `$SR) measurements  provide a complementary probe in this regard. In a magnetic material having a heterogenous structure, such as “magnetic” and “non-magnetic” regions, $`\mu `$SR data are composed of two different signals, corresponding to different environments with signal amplitudes roughly proportional to their volume fractions. Local magnetic fields at muon sites result primarily from the dipolar interaction. In antiferromagnetically ordered systems the local field decays very quickly with increasing distance from ordered spins, resulting in an effective range of the field of $``$ 10-15 Å in cuprate systems. Thus, any heterogeneous magnetic structure in HTSC, having a length scale larger than this, should produce multiple and distinguishable $`\mu `$SR signals.

In this paper, we report zero-field (ZF) and transverse-field (TF) $`\mu `$SR measurements in a single crystal of La2CuO4.11 (LCO:4.11) where excess oxygen is intercalated in a stage-4 structure . This system is superconducting below $`T_c42`$ K. Observation of sharp satellite Bragg peaks in neutron scattering indicates static long range ($`>`$ 600 Å) spin density wave (SDW) order below $`T_N42`$ K. The modulation wave vector of the SDW is comparable to those observed in La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) and La2-x-yNdySrxCuO4 (LNSCO) systems with the hole concentration $`x`$ 0.125 . The LCO:4.11 system is especially interesting since (a) it has the highest superconducting $`T_c`$ in the 214 family of materials; (b) it has a rather high magnetic $`T_N`$, which is very close to $`T_c`$, and well developed long range magnetic order below $`T_N`$; (c) there is no randomness arising from Sr substitution, and the intercalated oxygen ions are three dimensionally ordered. Preliminary results and analysis of our ZF-$`\mu `$SR in LCO:4.11 have been presented at a recent conference .

We also report $`\mu `$SR results in a superconducting La1.88Sr0.12CuO4 (LSCO:0.12) single crystal with $`T_c30`$ K which exhibits magnetic Bragg peaks in neutron scattering . Comparing these results with those of a simulation of the local field distribution at possible muon sites, we examine various models for the magnetically ordered regions. The interplay between superconductivity and magnetism is discussed in the context of the superfluid density $`n_s/m^{}`$ derived from TF-$`\mu `$SR results.

$`\mu `$SR studies of magnetism in HTSC systems started in 1987 with studies of antiferromagnetic La2CuO4 (AF-LCO) , which provided the first evidence of static magnetic order. Subsequently, $`\mu `$SR studies on La2CuO4 , (La,Li)2CuO4 , La2-xSrxCuO4 \[30-34\], and YBa2Cu3Oy , were performed to characterize magnetic phase diagrams as a function of hole concentration and also to study details of the spin glass states near $`x=0.05`$.

$`\mu `$SR measurements of HTSC systems with hole concentration $`x`$ near 1/8 were first performed in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 . These detected static magnetic order below $`T_N`$ = 32 K and a Bessel function $`\mu `$SR line shape, characteristic of spin density wave systems. A reduction of $`T_c`$, associated with an increase of the muon spin relaxation due to quasi-static magnetism, was also found by $`\mu `$SR in La2-xSrxCuO4 near $`x=0.12`$ . Recent $`\mu `$SR studies on (La,Nd,Sr)2CuO4 (LNSCO) , (La,Eu,Sr)2CuO4 (LESCO)  and La1.875Ba0.125-ySryCuO4 (LBSCO)  found the characteristic Bessel function line shape with the same frequency $`\nu 3.5`$ MHz in all these systems. In the latter studies the primary emphasis was determining the magnetic phase diagram as a function of rare-earth and hole concentrations. Although the existence of “zero/low field muon sites”, expected for decomposition of the system into regions with and without static magnetic order, was discussed in these reports , a systematic study of magnetic volume fraction was not made.

Previously, Pomjakushin et al.  reported a $`\mu `$SR study for single crystal specimens of La2CuO4+y doped with oxygen, with $`y`$ = 0.02 (LCO:4.02) and 0.04 (LCO:4.04), which have compositions in the miscibility gap between AF-LCO and the stage-6 superconducting compound. In zero field, they observed $`\mu `$SR precession signals identical to those found in AF-LCO. With decreasing temperature in LCO:4.02, the amplitude of this oscillatory signal increased from nearly zero above the superconducting $`T_c15`$ K to more than a half of that in AF-LCO at $`T0`$. In LCO:4.04, the oscillatory signal appeared below $`T230`$ K with an amplitude corresponding to approximately a 10 % volume fraction for the AF region, and then exhibited a sharp increase below the superconducting $`T_c25`$ K to about a half volume fraction at $`T0`$. In both cases, the amplitudes of the AF oscillation exhibited an increase below $`T_c`$. The diamagnetic susceptibility of the LCO:4.02 specimen was, however, destroyed by a small applied field, indicating rather fragile superconductivity. Lack of information about the crystal orientation in the $`\mu `$SR measurements prevented a reliable estimate of the volume fraction in this study.

In Section II we present experimental details and results of the ZF-$`\mu `$SR measurements. Section III contains our simulation based on a model in which the sample contains microscopic regions where there is full magnetic order and other microscopic regions where the magnetic fields are too small to cause muon precession. In Section IV we presents results of measurements in a transverse magnetic field that are sensitive to the superconductivity. Finally in Section V we discuss the results and draw conclusions.

## II Zero field $`\mu `$SR measurements

Single crystals of LCO:4.11 and LSCO:0.12 have been prepared as described in refs.  and , which report neutron scattering studies of these crystals, respectively. The excess-oxygen doped La2CuO4+y sample is prepared by electrochemically doping a single crystal of pure La2CuO4 which is grown by the traveling solvent floating-zone method. The crystal has a mass of 4.21 grams and is cylindrical in shape. As result of twinning, there are equal populations of two twin domains with either the a or b crystallographic axis (in orthorhombic notation) nearly parallel to the cylinder’s long-axis. In both twin domains, the c-axis is perpendicular to the long-axis. Thermogravitimetric analysis on our samples has been performed on two smaller La2CuO4+y crystals with $`T_c=42`$K. We find oxygen concentrations of $`y=0.10(1)`$ and $`y=0.12(1)`$. The large crystal has the same $`T_c`$, so its oxygen concentration is expected to correspond to $`y=0.11(1)`$.

Neutron diffraction measurements have shown that this material has a structural modulation along the c-axis corresponding to stage-4. . Further details regarding the characterization of the stage-4 crystal by neutron scattering, susceptibility, and transport techniques may be found in references  and .

$`\mu `$SR measurements were performed at TRIUMF, using a surface muon beam with an incident muon momentum of 28 MeV/c, following the standard procedure described in refs. . We employed the so-called “low-background” muon spectrometer, which has the capability of vetoing events from muons landing in areas other than the specimen, to ensure much less than $``$ 10 % background signal in our $`\mu `$SR data. In ZF-$`\mu `$SR, we observed positron time spectra via counters placed forward (F) and backward (B) to the incident beam direction ($`\widehat{z}`$), with the polarization of incident muons $`\stackrel{}{P}_\mu `$ anti-parallel to $`\widehat{z}`$. The muon spin relaxation function $`G_z(t)`$ was obtained from forward (F) and backward (B) time spectra as

$$G_z(t)=[B(t)F(t)]/[F(t)+B(t)]$$
$`(1),`$
after correcting for the difference in effective solid angles of the F and B counters. As illustrated in Fig. 1(a), two sets of measurements were made with the c-axis of the specimen mounted parallel (configuration CZ-I) and perpendicular (CZ-II) to $`\widehat{z}\stackrel{}{P}_\mu `$.

Figures 2(a) and (b) show the muon spin polarization function $`G_z(t)`$ observed in these two crystals for CZ-I and CZ-II. Also included are the results obtained for ceramic specimens of non-superconducting La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 (LBCO:0.125)  and La1.475Nd0.4Sr0.13CuO4 (LNSCO:0.13) .

We see almost no relaxation above $`T_N`$ in the time range $`t`$ 1 $`\mu `$s. Below $`T_N42`$ K of LCO:4.11 and $`T_N20`$ K of LSCO:0.12, a small oscillatory component appears, with a Bessel-function line shape characteristic of muon precession in SDW systems . The amplitude $`A_{or}`$ of this oscillating and relaxing signal is limited to about 34 % (CZ-I) and 24 % (CZ-II) at $`T0`$ for LCO:4.11, and 20 % (CZ-I) and 10 % (CZ-II) for LSCO:0.12. If we define the internal field at a muon site as $`\stackrel{}{H}`$ and $`\theta `$ is the angle between $`\widehat{z}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{H}`$, as illustrated in Fig. 1(b), the oscillatory / relaxing amplitude represents $`\mathrm{sin}^2(\theta )`$ averaged over all the muon sites. In a ceramic specimen which undergoes magnetic order in 100 % of the volume, this amplitude is 67 % (=2/3), as shown in the case of LBCO:0.125. Therefore, the observed signal amplitudes $`A_{or}`$ for LCO:4.11 and LSCO:0.12 are less than a half the value expected for a sample with a SDW uniformly established throughout its volume.

In single-crystal specimens, $`A_{or}`$ can have a small value if the local fields $`\stackrel{}{H}`$ for the majority of muon sites are parallel to $`\widehat{z}\stackrel{}{P}_\mu `$. For this case, however, one should see a large $`A_{or}`$ when the crystal orientation is rotated by 90 degrees from CZ-I to CZ-II or vice versa. Thus, our results, with small $`A_{or}`$ values for the both configurations, cannot be attributed to such anisotropy. In view of the symmetry of the LCO and LSCO structures, the “powder average” value of $`A_{orpwd}`$ can be obtained  as

$$A_{orpwd}(1/3)\times [A_{or:CZI}+2A_{or:CZII}],$$
$`(2),`$
which yields 27 % for LCO:4.11 and 12 % for LSCO:0.12. The reduction of $`A_{orpwd}`$ from 66.7 % indicates the existence of “zero/low-field” muon sites.

We have analysed the ZF-$`\mu `$SR data by fitting the results at $`t1\mu `$s to

$$G_z(t)=A_{or}j_o(\omega t)exp(\mathrm{\Lambda }t)+A_nexp[\mathrm{\Delta }^2t^2/2]$$
$`(3),`$
where $`j_o`$ is the 0-th order Bessel function and $`A_n`$ represents the non-oscillating amplitude. The first exponential term represents the damping of the Bessel oscillation, whereas the second describes the slow decay due to nuclear dipolar fields. We obtain the volume fraction $`V_\mu `$ of muon sites that experience the SDW field using

$$V_\mu A_{orpwd}/(2/3),$$
$`(4)`$
with Aor-pwd determined from Eq. (2) at the lowest temperature. We then scale the values for higher temperatures using $`A_{or}`$ results for the CZ-I configuration. For our fit range of $`t1\mu `$s, those muon sites with $`H30`$ G contribute to the first term in Eq. 3, and thus are identified as “finite-field muon sites”.

Figures 3(a) and (b) show the temperature dependence of $`V_\mu `$ and the oscillation frequency $`\nu =\omega /2\pi `$ for LCO:4.11, LSCO:0.12, LBCO:0.125  and LNSCO:0.13 (ceramic) . The common Bessel-function line shape and the nearly identical frequency $`\nu 3.5`$ MHz (corresponding to maximum internal field of 260 G) at $`T0`$ for all the four systems indicate that the spin configurations and magnitudes of the static Cu moments (proportional to $`\nu `$) surrounding the “finite-field muon sites” are identical for all the four systems. The volume fraction $`V_\mu `$ increases progressively below $`T_N`$ with decreasing temperature, in both LCO:4.11 and LSCO:0.12. The frequency $`\nu `$ acquires its full value just below $`T_N`$ in LCO:4.11. In Fig. 3(c), we compare the temperature dependence of the neutron Bragg-peak intensity $`I_B`$ of LCO:4.11  with $`V_\mu \times \nu ^2`$ from $`\mu `$SR. The good agreement of neutron and muon results indicate that these two probes detect the same static magnetism even though the former measures the ordered moment over distances $`600`$ Å. The $`\mu `$SR results suggest that the observed temperature dependence of $`I_B`$ should be ascribed mainly to the change of the site fraction containing ordered Cu spins, rather than to the increase of the static moment on individual Cu atoms although this is model dependent.

To illustrate further this unusual temperature dependence of the magnetic order parameter in LCO:4.11, we compare ZF-$`\mu `$SR spectra of LCO:4.11 and AF-LCO ($`T_N250`$ K) in Fig. 4. In AF-LCO (Fig. 4(b)), as in most conventional magnetic systems where long-range magnetic order develops in 100 % of the volume, ZF-$`\mu `$SR data exhibit muon spin precession whose amplitude is nearly independent of temperature, but whose frequency increases with decreasing temperature. In contrast, for LCO:4.11 (Fig. 4(a)) the oscillation amplitude increases gradually with decreasing temperature below $`T_N`$ while the frequency just below $`T_N`$ is already close to the low-temperature value. This implies that in LCO:4.11 the local order is well developed but dynamic above $`T_N`$, and the ordering process below $`T_N`$ involves the ordering of this local magnetism over long distances with a concomitant freezing of the spins.

## III Simulation of zero-field $`\mu `$SR

To explore the possible origin of the two kinds of muon sites, we have performed computer simulations of the local field distributions at possible muon sites. The location of the muon site in AF-LCO has been approximated by Hitti et al.  to be about 1 Å away from the apical oxygen, based on the expected length of the O2--$`\mu ^+`$ hydrogen bond. We have improved their estimate by taking into account the tilt of the CuO6 octahedra and by comparing the observed $`\mu `$SR precession frequency $`\nu =5.8`$ MHz with the Cu long-range ordered moment size 0.55 $`\mu _B`$ in AF-LCO . Figure 5 shows the location of the apical-oxygen muon site at (0.199$`d`$, 0$`d`$, 0.171$`c`$) in the unit cell with $`d`$ = 3.779 Å, and $`c`$ = 13.2 Å assumed in this simulation. Since the direction of $`\stackrel{}{H}`$ is very sensitive to a small change of the tilt angle of the CuO6 octahedra, we calculate the expected ZF-$`\mu `$SR line shape for the powder-average.

Figure 6(a) shows the line shape for this apical-oxygen muon site for: (1) a 100 % volume fraction of antiferromagnetically (AF) ordered Cu moments having modulation vector $`k_{AF}`$ with ordered moment of 0.55 $`\mu _B`$ (chain-dotted line); and (2) Cu spins with an incommensurate SDW amplitude modulation superimposed on the antiferromagnetic correlations, with a maximum static Cu moment value of 0.35 $`\mu _B`$ (broken line). Here we have assumed that the SDW propagation vector is along the Cu-O-Cu bond direction (i.e., 45 degrees to the orthorhombic $`a`$ and $`b`$ axes) with magnitude $`k=2\pi /d\times 0.12`$ ($`d=3.78`$ Å is the distance between nearest neighbour Cu atoms) We have calculated the spin polarization using

$$\mathrm{cos}(\stackrel{}{k}_{AF}\stackrel{}{x})\times \mathrm{cos}(\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{x})=$$

$$(1/2)\mathrm{cos}[(\stackrel{}{k}_{AF}+\stackrel{}{k})\stackrel{}{x}]+(1/2)\mathrm{cos}[(\stackrel{}{k}_{AF}\stackrel{}{k})\stackrel{}{x}],$$
$`(5)`$
at a given position $`\stackrel{}{x}`$. These results confirm that the SDW model gives a line shape nearly identical to a Bessel function (solid line). In AF-LCO the observed $`\mu `$SR results  show a substantial damping of the sinusoidal precession, due to various possible origins, such as nuclear dipolar fields, variations of the muon site or crystal imperfection. To account for the reduction of the observed $`\mu `$SR frequency from 5.8 MHz in AF-LCO to 3.64 MHz at $`T0`$ in LCO:4.11, we need to assume that the maximum static Cu moment size in the SDW modulation is $``$ 0.36 $`\mu _B`$. This may be compared with the bare Cu moment of 1.1 $`\mu _B`$.

Since there is a substantial density of intercalated oxygen in LCO:4.11, we have also modeled the field distribution at several locations 1 Å away from the expected site of the intercalated oxygen atoms. As may be seen from Fig. 6(b), which displays decay curves calculated for 100 % ordered SDW Cu moments with maximum moment size of 0.35 $`\mu _B`$, there is no muon site location having zero or low internal field. Therefore, we cannot ascribe the existence of “zero/low-field sites” in LCO:4.11 to intercalated oxygen. Furthermore, in LSCO:0.12, there is, of course, no intercalated oxygen, so it seems clear that the non-magnetic sites must have a different origin.

In Fig. 7(a), we show the line shape $`G_z(t)`$ calculated for Cu moments in circular islands of SDW order in the CuO2 planes, for various volume fractions $`V_{Cu}`$ of static Cu spins, assuming the radius $`R`$ of the circular islands to be $`R50`$ Å. Bessel function line shapes are obtained with a common frequency, while the regions without static Cu moments account for the zero-field sites. The size of the magnetic island is reflected in the dampening of the Bessel oscillation.

In Fig. 7(b) we compare the results of simulations for two different geometries. One is for circular magnetic islands with $`V_{Cu}=50`$% and $`R`$ = 15 and 100 Å. The other corresponds to an “ordered sandwich” model, where two out of every four CuO2 planes contain completely ordered SDW Cu spins while the other two planes, presumably those adjacent to the intercalated O layers, have no static Cu spins. The curve for $`R=15`$ Å islands shows a fast dampening of the Bessel oscillation, together with a slow decay of the non-oscillating signal. In contrast, the curves for $`R=100`$ Å islands and for the sandwich model exhibit a long-lived Bessel oscillation, with little decay of the non-oscillating signal.

After generating line shapes for the SDW-island model, we have fitted the simulation results to the functional form of Eq. 3. Figure 8(a) shows the resulting magnetic site fraction $`V_\mu `$ as a function of volume fraction containing static Cu spin order $`V_{Cu}`$. We see that $`V_\mu `$ increases linearly with increasing Cu fraction, with a slope that is independent of island size $`R`$. The site fraction $`V_\mu `$ becomes nearly 100 % at $`V_{Cu}75`$%. This implies that even the observation of a magnetic $`\mu `$SR signal corresponding to $`V_\mu =100`$ % cannot rule out the existence of regions of non-ordered Cu moments in $``$ 25 % of the volume. By using the relationship between $`V_\mu `$ and $`V_{Cu}`$, we estimate as lower limits $`V_{Cu}27`$ % for our crystal of LCO:4.11 and $`10`$ % for LSCO:0.12. Of course, this same possible difference between $`V_\mu `$ and $`V_{Cu}`$ applies in all other copper oxide SDW systems.

In Fig. 8(b), we show the dampening rate $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ of the Bessel function oscillation. We find that a smaller radius $`R`$ of the island results in a larger $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. We also fit the observed spectra in LCO:4.11 with Eq. 3 and plot the corresponding point in Fig. 8(b) (open star symbol). The result $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{4.11}=1.25\mu s^1`$ agrees well with the simulation for $`R=15`$ Å. In actual systems, however, additional factors cause dampening of the Bessel oscillation, such as variations in the muon site, nuclear dipolar fields, and the effects of imperfections.

To account for these additional effects, we have fit the spectrum of AF-LCO at $`T`$ = 20 K in Fig. 4(b) with the simple form $`\mathrm{cos}(\omega t+\varphi )`$ multiplied by an exponential decay $`\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Lambda }t)`$, and obtain $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{AF}0.81\mu s^1`$. Assuming that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{AF}`$ represents the additional relaxation contributions, we have obtained a corrected relaxation rate from

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_{4.11}^c(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{4.11}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{AF}^2)^{1/2}.$$
$`(6)`$
That is, we assume that the decay constants add in quadrature.

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{4.11}^c`$ is shown by the closed star symbol in Fig. 8(b). These considerations lead us to estimate $`R=1530`$ Å for the average radius of the static magnetic islands in LCO:4.11. A similar analysis for LSCO:0.12 would give roughly the same estimate for $`R`$. However, because the oscillation amplitude in LSCO:0.12 is much smaller than that in LCO:4.11, the analysis would be less reliable.

It is also possible to obtain the relaxation rate expected for the sandwich model. The result ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.2\mu s^1`$), shown in Fig. 8(b) by the asterisk symbol, indicates that this model is less successful than the magnetic island model in reproducing the relaxation $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{4.11}^c`$ observed in LCO:4.11.

We now discuss a simple heuristic model for the propagation of magnetic order between these presumed islands. If we assume that spins in neighbouring islands in the same CuO2 plane are correlated when there is any overlap in the islands’ area, as illustrated in Fig. 9, we can estimate the effective correlation length of the spin order. For various values of $`V_{Cu}`$ we have calculated the probability that the direction of the Cu spins in the magnetic islands, located at a distance $`r`$ from a Cu spin in the center of a magnetic island, is correlated with the direction of the Cu spin at $`r=0`$. The results of this calculation, shown in Fig. 9, suggest that even with the assumption that the spins are in islands, the order in a given plane may nevertheless propagate over long distances. However, for V$`{}_{Cu}{}^{}=30`$% the correlation length from Fig. 9 is only $`3`$ times the size of the magnetic island, whereas the narrow SDW peaks observed in neutron scattering measurements indicate that the static spins are correlated over very large distances ($`>`$ 600 Å) within the plane . Therefore, some additional mechanism to increase the connectivity is required.

The results in Fig. 9 are obtained assuming no spin correlations between magnetic islands belonging to different neighbouring CuO2 planes. The neutron measurements of LCO:4.11  indicate that the static SDW order exhibits short range correlations along the c-axis direction with a correlation length of $`13`$ Å, somewhat larger than twice the distance between adjacent CuO2 planes. Such spin correlations along the c-axis direction would further increase the size of the correlated clusters shown in Fig. 9. For example, if we allow correlations when any overlap exists among areas of the islands projected to the adjacent island on neighbouring planes, the effective number of islands contributing to the “connectivity” would increase at least by 3 times compared to the case without interplane correlations. This is because all the islands on a given CuO2 plane plus those on the upper and lower planes would participate in the correlations.

In Fig. 10, we illustrate this by showing randomly positioned islands of 30 % integrated area fraction in three different planes (a)-(c). When we overlap these planes, almost all the islands achieve percolation, as shown in Fig. 10(d). Moreover, there could be further contribution from islands on the second neighbour planes which would enhance connectivity within the first neighbour planes. In this way, we expect a strong tendency towards percolation of spin correlations among randomly positioned magnetic islands.

## IV Superconducting Properties

TF-$`\mu `$SR measurements allow us to derive the magnetic field penetration depth $`\lambda `$ from the superconducting contribution $`\sigma `$ of the muon spin relaxation rate as $`\sigma \lambda ^2n_s/m^{}`$ (superconducting carrier density / effective mass). This rate $`\sigma `$ reflects the inhomogeneity of the magnetic field in the flux vortex structure, which varies over a length scale of $``$ 1000-3000 Å. Any heterogeneity in the superconducting properties at length scales shorter than this will be averaged out. Thus, $`\mu `$SR probes superconductivity with a $``$ 100 times coarser spatial resolution than that with which it probes static magnetism. In HTSC systems without any static magnetic order, the line shapes in TF-$`\mu `$SR spectra can be used to study more detailed spatial features, such as the size of the vortex core region . In the present case, with co-existing superconductivity and static magnetic order, however, detailed line-shape analyses become very difficult.

We have performed TF-$`\mu `$SR measurements by rotating the incident muon polarization to be perpendicular to the beam $`\stackrel{}{P}_\mu \widehat{z}`$ and applying an external field parallel to $`\widehat{z}`$ with the c-axis of the specimen mounted either parallel to $`\widehat{z}`$ \[configuration CT-I\] or perpendicular to $`\widehat{z}`$ \[configuration CT-II\], as illustrated in Fig. 11. The muon spin polarization function $`G_x(t)`$ is measured using two sets of counters placed up (U) and down (D) of the incident beam.

As shown in Figs. 12(a) and (b), we observe a larger relaxation in CT-I, the geometry reflecting the in-plane penetration depth $`\lambda _{ab}`$, than in CT-II. We have analyzed the TF-$`\mu `$SR results by assuming the existence of a static internal field in a volume fraction $`V_\mu `$ of muon sites, having the distribution in magnitude and direction estimated from the ZF-$`\mu `$SR measurements. We have then added vectorially the external field, with a Gaussian broadening due to superconductivity. For the “zero/low-field muon sites” with volume fraction (1-$`V_\mu `$), we assume that the muon sees only the nuclear dipolar fields and the Gaussian-broadened external field. We fit the observed data with this model, and derive the Gaussian half-width at half maximum of the superconducting contribution equal to $`\sigma /\gamma _\mu `$. Figure 12(a) shows the calculated contributions to the relaxation from superconductivity and static magnetism, separately.

The temperature dependence of $`\sigma `$, observed in the CT-I configuration, is shown in Fig. 13 for LCO:4.11 and LSCO:0.12. The relaxation rate shows a gradual increase with decreasing temperature below $`T_c`$. To compare the values of $`\sigma (T0)`$ with those observed in ceramic specimens of other HTSC systems \[49-52\], we multiply by 1/1.4 to account for the effect of the anisotropic penetration depth . We then add the corresponding points to the plot of $`\sigma (T0)`$ versus $`T_c`$ in Fig. 14. The points for the present systems lie on the same trajectory as other LSCO systems. We have also included a point for LESCO (Eu0.1, Sr0.15; ceramic), which exhibits static magnetic order with $`V_\mu 50`$% . This point again falls on the trajectory. The correlation in Fig. 14 suggests that $`\sigma n_s/m^{}`$ at $`T0`$ is a determining factor for $`T_c`$ in HTSC systems with static stripe freezing (present systems and LESCO) in a way similar to the case for underdoped , Zn-doped  and overdoped  HTSC systems.

## V Discussion and Conclusions

### A Interplay between magnetic and superconducting volumes

Comparing the results of $`\sigma `$ to those observed in ceramic LSCO systems, assuming that $`m^{}`$ is independent of doping, the results for LCO:4.11 and LSCO:0.12 correspond to volume average hole densities of $``$ 0.14 +/- 0.02 and 0.10 +/- 0.02 holes per Cu, respectively. In view of the large systematic errors, however, we can not use these results to distinguish whether the volume without static magnetism (1-$`V_{Cu}`$) alone or the total volume carries superconductivity. We can rule out, however, a case where superconducting carriers exist only in the magnetic volume $`V_{Cu}`$, since the local hole-concentration for this model would need to be unrealistically large (more than 0.3 holes per Cu) to account for the observed value of volume integrated $`n_s/m^{}`$, which is comparable to those in LSCO systems in the optimum-doping region. So far, a clear indication of mutually exclusive regions with static magnetism and superconductivity has been obtained only in $`\mu `$SR measurements in (La,Eu,Sr)2CuO4 (LESCO) , which demonstrate that the superfluid density $`n_s/m^{}`$ scales as (1-$`V_\mu `$).

In previous work on La1.45Nd0.4Sr0.15CuO4 and La1.45Nd0.4Sr0.2CuO4 , which are superconducting below $`T_c7`$ K and 12 K, respectively, $`V_\mu 100`$ % was found. This result could be interpreted as evidence of spatial overlap of regions supporting superconductivity and regions having static spin order. The relationship in Fig. 8(a), however, indicates that $`V_{Cu}`$ for this system can be smaller than 100 %. This leaves open the possibility that superconductivity with reduced $`T_c`$ survives in a small remaining volume fraction (1-$`V_{Cu}`$) $``$ 20 %, while superconducting regions and regions with static magnetism are mutually exclusive.

The situation with magnetic islands, having length scales comparable to the in-plane superconducting coherence length, resembles the “swiss cheese model”  for Zn-doped HTSC systems, where a non-superconducting region of comparable size is created around each Zn. This model was proposed based on the $`\mu `$SR results for the reduction of $`n_s/m^{}`$ as a function of Zn concentration , and was recently confirmed by direct measurements of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) . The $`\mu `$SR results for overdoped HTSC systems can also be explained if one assumes spontaneous formation of hole-rich non-superconducting islands embedded into a sea of hole-poor superfluid \[55, 58-60\]. The correlation between $`T_c`$ and $`n_s/m^{}`$ survives in all these systems, as shown in Fig. 14. We note that similar microscopic heterogeneity in the superconducting state has also been found in recent STM measurements on underdoped Bi2212 systems .

The $`T_c`$ vs. $`n_s/m^{}`$ correlations are robust against various perturbations in HTSC materials, such as those caused by Zn-impurities, overdoped fermion carriers, and the formation of static magnetic islands, seen in the present work. This is analogous to the robustness of correlations between the superfluid transition temperature and the 2-dimensional superfluid density in thin films of 4He and 3He/4He adsorbed in porous and non-porous media \[62-66\]. Based on these observations, one of us  pointed out a possible relevance of these heterogeneous electronic/magnetic features in HTSC systems to a “microscopic phase separation”, such as the one seen in superfluid 3He/4He films adsorbed in porous media / fine powders .

In the present work on LCO:4.11, as well as a previous $`\mu `$SR study on LCO:4.02 and LCO4.04 , the onset of superconductivity occurs around the temperature below which the volume fraction of static magnetism increases with decreasing temperature. This apparent coincidence of $`T_c`$ and $`T_N`$ could be expected if a microscopic rearrangement of charge distribution occurs at $`T_cT_N`$ to separate the electron systems into hole-rich regions which support superconductivity and hole-poor ($`x1/8`$ for LCO:4.11 and $`x0`$ for LCO:4.02 and LCO:4.04) regions which support static magnetism.

Recently, Kivelson et al.  have proposed a model with a particular type of phase separation to explain the sharp rise of $`\nu `$ and gradual increase of $`V_{Cu}`$ below $`T_N`$ seen in the present study of LCO:4.11. Their model also predicts a trade-off of superconducting and magnetic volumes below $`T_cT_N`$. The gradual change of both $`\sigma (T)`$ and $`V_\mu (T)`$ below $`T_cT_N`$ in LCO:4.11 (Figs. 3(a) and 13), however, seems inconsistent with such a trade-off.

The superconducting $`T_c`$ and the magnetic $`T_N`$ appear at different temperatures in $`\mu `$SR measurements of LSCO:0.12 as well as in various LNSCO and LESCO systems, with LSCO:0.12 having $`T_c>T_N`$ and the other materials having $`T_N>T_c`$. It should be noted that neutron measurements give $`T_cT_N`$ in LSCO:0.12, while $`T_N`$ determined by $`\mu `$SR is lower, presumably due to difference in time windows between neutron and muon measurements. In these systems the frequency $`\nu `$ increases with decreasing temperature gradually below $`T_N`$, as shown in Fig. 3(b), and in refs. \[38-42\]. Thus, the abrupt development of the magnetic order parameter is not a common feature of all the HTSC systems.

### B Bragg peak intensity in LCO:4.11 and AF-LCO

We can estimate the Bragg peak intensity $`I_{B:4.11}`$ expected in neutron scattering measurements on LCO:4.11 from the $`\mu `$SR results. $`I_{B:4.11}`$ should be reduced from the value $`I_{B:AF}`$ in AF-LCO by a factor 0.5 for the SDW amplitude ($`sin^2`$) times the ratio of the maximum static moments (0.36/0.55)2 times the volume fraction of magnetic Cu atoms $`V_{Cu}=0.27`$. Thus, we predict as a rough estimate $`I_{B:4.11}=0.06I_{B:AF}`$. This value agrees well with the observed neutron results $`I_{B:4.11}=0.07I_{B:AF}`$. In Reference  it is assumed that three out of four copper ions are magnetic and that they are distributed uniformly throughout the entire volume, so a smaller average moment per Cu2+ of 0.15 $`\mu _B`$ is inferred.

We note, however, that estimates of the ordered moment size from neutron studies and from $`\mu `$SR often disagree with one another. For example, the Néel temperature in antiferromagnetic La2CuO4+δ varies from $`T_N300`$ K to $`T_N100`$ K with a small variation in $`\delta `$. In neutron scattering studies of these AF-LCO systems, the Bragg peak intensity $`I_B`$ shows a reduction, by more than a factor of 10, with decreasing $`T_N`$ . In contrast, the frequency of ZF-$`\mu `$SR spectra shows only a 20 % change in the local frozen moment for the same reduction of $`T_N`$. These $`\mu `$SR and neutron results on AF-LCO are compared in ref. . Since the $`\mu `$SR frequency is directly proportional to the magnitude of neighbouring static Cu moments, the reduction of $`I_B`$ in neutron studies cannot be ascribed to a change of individual Cu moment size. The likely reason for the strong reduction of $`I_B`$ is a progressive trade-off between the true long range ordered component and short range spin glass fluctuations which recent work  has shown involves fluctuations into the diagonal stripe spin glass phase with hole concentration of $`0.02`$.

### C Neutron results in high magnetic fields

Recently Khaykovich et al.  have made measurements on LCO:4.11 in high magnetic fields $`H_{ext}`$ applied parallel to the c-axis. By increasing the external field from $`H_{ext}=0`$ to $`H_{ext}=9`$ T, they have found a factor $`2`$ increase of the intensity $`I_B`$ of the magnetic Bragg peak at $`T0`$ for a crystal similar to the one studied here. The superconducting $`T_c`$ is suppressed by $`H_{ext}`$, while $`T_N`$ remains nearly unchanged up to $`H_{ext}=9`$ T.

Application of $`H_{ext}`$ perpendicular to the CuO2 plane creates vortices. The vortex core, with radius comparable to the in-plane coherence length $`\xi _{ab}30`$ Å becomes normal, as illustrated in Fig. 15. These normal cores could have static magnetic order similar to that in the surrounding magnetic islands.

The fraction of the area contained in vortex cores may be estimated from the upper critical field, since that is the field at which the cores fill the entire area. Using $`H_{c2}40`$ T, found for optimally doped LSCO , we expect that only $`1/4`$ or less of the area that is superconducting at $`H_{ext}=0`$ would be turned into a normal core at $`H_{ext}=9`$ T. However, this is sufficient to explain the factor $`2`$ increase in the Bragg peak intensity if the zero-field sample has ordered moments in only $`27`$% of its volume and if the magnetism in the cores is coherent with the long range order present at zero field. We are currently undertaking $`\mu `$SR studies of LCO:4.11 in high applied magnetic fields, which will be reported in future publications.

In nearly optimally doped LSCO, Lake et al.  have recently found that low-energy neutron scattering intensity, below the energy transfer corresponding to the superconducting energy gap, increases at temperatures well below $`T_c`$, when a high external field $`H_{ext}`$ is applied along the c-axis. This phenomenon may also be related to the magnetic response from the flux-core regions, since the increase of the intensity sets in at the flux-depinning temperature. A rather surprising feature of this study is the sharpness of the observed low-energy fluctuations in momentum space, suggesting long-range spin correlations among widely separated vortex core regions. We point out here that, like the static order, this requires long range coupling between vortex cores.

### D Conclusions

In summary, we have performed ZF-$`\mu `$SR measurements using LCO:4.11 and LSCO:0.12 single crystals, and have found that static incommensurate SDW spin freezing, with the maximum ordered Cu moment size of 0.36 $`\mu _B`$, develops only in a partial site fraction. We assume $`V_\mu `$ 40% for LCO:4.11 and $``$ 18% for LSCO:0.12, and specific modeling suggests that the corresponding ordered Cu fractions may be somewhat smaller. Comparison of observed results with computer simulation suggests the formation of static magnetic islands on the CuO2 planes having size $`R=1530`$ Å, comparable to the in-plane superconducting coherence length $`\xi _{ab}`$. Order between these islands nevertheless propagates over long distances to yield a correlation length in excess of 600 Å.

We stress that LCO:4.11, which is a stoichiometric single crystal, has the least built-in randomness among the various HTSC systems that exhibit static incommensurate magnetic correlations. Yet the present work demonstrates that the ground state is a mixture of magnetically ordered and at best weakly ordered regions. Near phase boundaries or quantum critical points in strongly correlated electron systems, such microscopic heterogeneity could result from competition of the different order parameters involved. Related phenomena have been observed, for example, in the formation of stripe magnetic correlations in manganites  and the development of stripe domains in LSCO with $`x0.01`$ to 0.02 . These observations encourage further theoretical studies of electronic states involving spontaneous formation of heterogenous regions in competing order parameter systems.

Our TF-$`\mu `$SR measurements in these systems demonstrate that $`n_s/m^{}`$ at $`T0`$ exhibits correlations with $`T_c`$ not only in underdoped, Zn-doped, and overdoped HTSC systems but also in the present systems with static SDW spin freezing. Recent measurements of the penetration depth in (BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2 in applied pressure , and in A3C60 systems , suggest that these correlations are followed also by organic and fullerine superconductors.

We have proposed a model for explaining the rather long-range spin correlations in these systems, resorting to “connectivity” of neighbouring magnetic islands on the same and adjacent CuO2 planes. We have also suggested that static magnetism in the vortex core region can provide explanations for the field dependence of the neutron scattering results in LCO:4.11 and in optimally doped LSCO systems.

The present work demonstrates a very important feature of $`\mu `$SR, i.e., the capability to determine the volume fraction of magnetically ordered regions. Recently, a similar case was noticed in the study of URu2Si2, where static magnetism below $`T_N17`$ K has been identified to exist in a partial volume fraction by combination of neutron  and NMR  studies in applied pressure. The first evidence for this feature was indeed provided by a $`\mu `$SR measurement  in ambient pressure. In the $`\mu `$SR results for URu2Si2, Luke et al. found a very sharp onset of the precession frequency $`\nu (T)`$ below $`T_N`$, temperature dependence of the precessing amplitude $`V_\mu (T)`$, and a good agreement between the temperature dependence $`I_B(T)`$ of the neutron Bragg peak and $`V_\mu \nu ^2`$ from $`\mu `$SR. These features are common to the present results in LCO:4.11. We also note that ZF-$`\mu `$SR results in CeCu2.2Si2  indicate a possible trade-off between magnetic and superconducting volume fractions. These results suggest possible involvement of microscopic phase separation in both HTSC systems and heavy fermion systems . Further detailed studies of $`\mu `$SR in combination with neutron scattering will be very helpful in obtaining an overall understanding of the interplay between magnetism and superconductivity in HTSC, heavy-fermion, and other strongly correlated electron systems.

## VI Acknowledgement

We wish to acknowledge helpful discussions with B. Nachumi, G. Shirane, J.M. Tranquada and S. Uchida. The work at Columbia was supported by NSF (DMR-98-02000 and DMR-01-02752) and US-Israel Binational Science Foundation. Research at McMaster is supported by NSERC and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. The work at MIT has been supported by the MRSEC Program of the National Science foundation under Award No. DMR 9808941 and by NSF under Awards No. DMR 0071256 and DMR 99-71264. Work at the University of Toronto is part of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and is supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.


text:
# I Introduction

## I Introduction

The Cuprates, Nickellates, and Manganites display interesting features of spin, charge, lattice and orbital orderings. These features lead to the display of a wide variety of physical phenomenon, such as Paramagnetism \[PM\], Ferromagnetism \[FM\], antiferromagnetism \[AF\], Chargetism***We are coining this terminology since we want to emphasize that akin to orderings in magnetism there is a dual ordering with respect to charge distribution \[i.e.charge orderings\], Orbitism \[i.e. orbital orderings\], Superconductivity, “Strange Metal” \[SM\] behaviour. In addition to the fundamental and interesting physics, these materials offer technological use \[i.e. Giant Magnetoresistance \[GMR\] also called Colosssal Magnetoresistance \[CMR\]\] and High Temperature Superconductivity \[HTSC\] .

Many HTSC materials are cuprates, which seem to exhibit statistics, dimensionality and phase transitions in novel ways. The nature of excitations \[i.e. quasiparticle or collective\], spin-charge separation, stripes \[static and dynamics\], inhomogeneities, psuedogap, effect of impurity dopings \[e.g. Zn, Ni\] and any other phenomenon in these materials must be consistently understood. Thus we turn to a sytematicBy systematic we mean that we intend to make using the same crystals all studies, such as XRD, EXAFS, XANES, IR, Optical, Raman spectroscopies, Specific heat, thermal conductivity, neutron scattering, NMR and others!  study of LSCO system for a range of Zn doping \[0.5%, 1.0 %, and 2.0 %\]. Here our purpose is to report on our temperature dependent polarized XANES measurements on the 1% LSCO sample. Zn-doped LSCO single crystal were grown by TSFZ technique. Temperature dependent Polarized XANES \[near edge local structure\] spectra were measured at the BL13-B1 \[Photon Factory\] in the Flourescence mode from 10 K to 300 K. Since both stripes and nonmagnetic Zn impurities substituted for Cu give rise to inhomogeneous charge and spin distribution it is interesting to understand the interplay of Zn impurities and stripes. To understand these points we have used Zn-doping and some of the results obatined are as follows: The spectra show a strong dependence with respect to the polarization angle, $`\theta `$, as is evident at any temperature by comparing the spectra where the electric field vector is parallel with ab-plane to the one where it is parallel to the c-axis. By using the XANES \[temperature\] difference spectra we have determined T\*Here by T\* we simply mean the temperature where there is a transition in the XANES spectrum. Experimentally we find, T\* $``$ 160-170 K for the current sample. The XANES difference spectra shows that the changes in XANES features are larger in the ab-plane than the c-axis, this trend is expected since zinc is doped in the ab-plane at the copper site. Our study also complements the results in literature namely that zinc doping does not affect the c-axis transport . Local lattice instability and stripes in the CuO2 plane of the La1.85 Sr0.15 Cu O4 using temperature dependent XANES and EXAFS was studied by Saini et al. . It was concluded in  that the temperature-dependent distortions show a maximum around 60 K, and minimum at 37 K \[i.e. Tc\] and that two types of doped charges coexist in different stripes in the superconducting phase. Here our motivation is a quite different. Among other details we want to answer in particular the following: Can we see a change in the XANES spectrum as a function of temperature, which originates from the inhomgeneous charge distribution in cuprates such as LSCO. Since as already mentioned above both stripes and nonmagnetic Zn impurities substituted for Cu give rise to inhomogeneous charge and spin distribution it is interesting to understand the interplay of Zn impurities and stripes. Naively we expect that stripes are pinned by Zn and that leads to suppression of quasiparticle weight. In particular it is found that the 1/8 hole-concentration anomaly of Tc, which is an indication of stripes is induced in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 by Zn substitution . Moreover the angle-resolved photoemission \[ARPES\] experiments show that the Zn substitution suppresses the quasi-particle weight along the (0,0)-$`(\pi ,\pi )`$ direction , this suppression is qualitatively same as that of underdoped La2-x Srx Cu O4 in which vertical stripes exist §§§These points have also been noted by Toyama et al. . Keeping these remarks in mind a little thought tell us that since the Tc of 1%Zn-doped La1.85 Sr0.15 Cu O4 is roughly 20 K, and on the other hand a $`T_c20`$ K LSCO system is underdoped with T\* $``$ 160-170 K, we would expect a T\* $``$ 160-170 K in a 1%Zn-doped La1.85 Sr0.15 Cu O4 if indeed a relation between stripes of kind mentioned above exists. Indeed we found a transition in XANES measured spectrum in the ab-plane as a function of temperature at 160-170 K, see Fig. 6. This is very inspiring since we could experimentally prove the guess about relationship of stripes and Zn-doping. In some sense we can map regions of phase diagrams into each other by varying zinc doping or by increasing stripe effect by going to the underdoped region, thus probing various regions of the phase diagrams. This also, is in keeping with our theoretical conjecture, that the of superconducting phase is intimately connected with fundamental collective excitations \[1-dimensional objects i.e. strings\]

## II Experimental Details

Conventional traveling solvent floating zone (TSFZ) method  was used for the crystal growth of La2-xSrxCu1-yZnyO4 (x=0.15, y=0.01). High purity (99.99%) powders of La2O3, SrCO3, CuO, ZnO were used as raw materials. For feed rod preparation, the raw materials were mixed in stoichiometric amount (x=0.15, y=0.01). The composition of solvent determined by slow cooling floating zone (SCFZ) method  was LSCZO (80 mol% (Cu+Zn)O) with x=0.4, y=0.013. The crystal was grown in a four mirror type infrared heating furnace in oxygen pressure $`P(O_2)=0.2`$ MPa at a growth speed of 1 mm/h. The as-grown crystal was cigar shaped with diameter about 5.5 mm and 60 mm along the growth direction. It showed metalic lustre and confirmed to be single domain by polarizing optical microscopy.

The XANES measurements were conducted at beamline B13-B1 at the Photon Factory (PF), Tsukuba, in the Fluorescence mode. The electron beam energy was 3.0 GeV and the maximum stored current is 400 mA. EXAFS data was collected using fixed-exit double crystal Si(111) monochromator. The first crystal is a water-cooled flat Si(111) monochromator and the second crystal is sagitally bent to focus the horizontal beam over $``$ 2 mrad. A 19-element solid state detector was used to collect the flourescence signal. The large number of detectors allows us to cover a sizeable amount of the solid angle of the x-ray flourescence emission in addition to giving a high signal to noise ratio. The temperatures of sample were controlled and monitored to within an accuracy of $`\pm `$ 1 K.

## III  Results and Discussion

In addition to our experimental work we have generated theoretically predicted spectra using FEFF8.10  for La2Cu O4, Fig. 1, unpolarized La1.85 Sr0.15 Cu0.99 Zn0.01 O4, Fig. 2, and La1.85 Sr0.15 Cu0.99 Zn0.01 O4, Fig. 3, when the polarization vector is along the c-axis. The definitions of the quantities $`\mu `$, $`\mu _0`$ and $`\chi `$ can be found in . We were not able to generate successfully the XANES spectra in case of $`E||ab`$-plane. Let us briefly discuss some simple points. By intention we have used the default values in the feff.inp file in order to generate the spectra. In order to leave room for standard comparisons the crystallographic data of Radaelli et al.,  was used at 10 K, in our FEFF calculations. A rough estimate of La1.85 Sr0.15 Cu0.99 Zn0.01 O4 \[Fig. 3\] when the polarization vector is along the c-axis \[for definition of peaks A please see below\], is A1 $``$ 8995 eV, A2 $``$ 9002 eV, A3 $``$ 9010 eV, thus the energy splittings are A2-A1 $``$ 7 eV, and A3-A2 $``$ 8 eV. Even by using almost default input files we can generate good agreement. We note that the edge energy found by the FEFF8.10 evaluations is $`E_0=8985.97415`$ eV, and that we have used the dopant card of atoms 2.50.

We have measured the XANES spectrum at temperatures of 10 K, 15 K, 20 K, 30 K, 40 K, 60 K, 80 K, 100 K, 120 K, 140 K, 160 K, 180 K, 200 K, 220 K, 240 K, 260 K, 280 K, and 300 K for both polarization directions, i.e. E $`||`$c-axis and E$`||`$ab-plane. Typical raw and subtracted spectra \[at 20 K\] are shown respectively in Figs. 4 and 5. The sharpness and detailed nature of the spectra are clear. Both the raw and subtracted data is extracted with Ada1. The edge energy used by Ada1 is $`E_0=8980.3`$ eV. Restricting ourselves upto energies of 9050 eV in Figs. 4 and 5, we can see several peaks. For the E$`||c`$-axis case we can see several peaks A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5, similarly for the E$`||`$ab-plane the peaks B0, B1, B2, B3 and B4. Peaks A0 and B0 will not be discussed here, features A1, A2, A3, B1, and B2 are briefly described below.

As can be seen from our typical measured XANES Spectra, the main absorption features are A1, A2, and A3 for the $`E||c`$ case and B1, and B2 for $`E||ab`$. In large part, the peaks A1, and A2 are determined by the multiple scattering of the ejected photoelectrons off apical oxygen and La and Sr atoms. The peak B1 arises from the multiple scattering off the in-plane oxygen and copper in the CuO2 plane, whereas B2 not only includes the multiple scattering contributions akin to B1 but in addition shows the many body shake-up satellite of it.

Here we give a rough estimate of energy positions and energy difference in peaks, leaving more details and analysis for elsewhere. We find A1 $``$ 8994 eV, A2 $``$ 9000 eV, A3 $``$ 9007 eV, B1 $``$ 9004.5 eV, and B2 $``$ 9011.5 eV. Thus the energy splittings between the peaks in the XANES spectra are as follows: A2-A1 $``$ 6 eV, A3-A2 $``$ 7 eV, B1-A2 $``$ 4.5 eV, and B2-B1 $``$ 7 eV. Even with this rough estimate our values are in good agreement with standard experimental values quoted for La2CuO4 and La1.85 Sr0.15 Cu O4 systems.

The temperature dependence of the measured difference with respect to \[w.r.t\] 20 K XANES Spectra for La1.85 Sr0.15 Cu0.99 Zn0.01 O4 for ab-plane and c-axis is shown respectively in Figs. 6 and 7 respectively. The quantity we plotted is XANES difference spectrum. This is simply defined as the difference between the XANES spectrum at a temperature T and reference temperature 20 K. The “difference” we have plotted is defined to be the \[approximate\] value between the maximum and minimum of the difference spectra. A “transition” is clearly seen in the ab-plane case at T=T\*$`160170`$ K whereas the c-axis data does not register any measurable \[on this scale\] change as is clear from Figs. 6 and 7. This suggest that a “transition” in 2D inhomogeneous electron gas. By “transition” we mean here an abrupt change in the XANES spectra given a certain doping and co-doping \[here by Zn\] at a certain temperature or temperature interval. By the pinning of stripes we can probe the strange metal phase in LSCO material. Theoretically we consider this as a charge order-disorder transition. In our scenario of HTSC theory we consider superconductivity arising from the dressing of 1-d stripe or string phase. The stripe arises due to a line of quantum critical points. This is supported by Monte-Carlo calculations \[among other reasons\] of 2D d-p Hubbard model where stripes and superconductivity exists. The correlation length in HTSC material is short compared to their conventional cousins, since here superconductivity arises due to 1-d stripes.

## IV Conclusions

Temperature dependent Polarized XANES \[near edge local structure\] spectra were measured at the BL13-B1 \[Photon Factory\] in the Flourescence mode from 10 K to 300 K for very good quality single crystal of LSCO co-doped with 1 % Zinc at the Cu site. Since both stripes and nonmagnetic Zn impurities substituted for Cu give rise to inhomogeneous charge and spin distribution it is interesting to understand the interplay of Zn impurities and stripes. We recently learned that Pan et al.  have reported microscopic electronic inhomogeneity in the high-Tc superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x. To understand these and other points we have used Zn-doping and some of the results obtained are as follows: The spectra show a strong dependence with respect to the polarization angle, $`\theta `$, as is evident at any temperature by comparing the spectra where the electric field vector is parallel with ab-plane to the one where it is parallel to the c-axis. By using the XANES \[temperature\] difference spectra we have determined T\* \[experimentally we find, T\* $``$ 160-170 K\] for this sample. The XANES difference spectra shows that the changes in XANES features are larger in the ab-plane than the c-axis, this trend is naively expected since zinc is doped in the ab-plane at the copper site. Our study also complements the results in literature namely that zinc doping does not affect the c-axis transport. We have also generated theoretical spectra from FEF8.10 which agrees well the experimental results, keeping in mind that we have mainly used default FEFF8.10 settings, by intention. However we were not able to generate the ab-plane XANES spectra with FEFF8.10.

## Acknowledgments

The Sher Alam’s work is supported by the Japan Society for for Technology \[JST\].


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# Semi-leptonic decays of heavy mesons and the Isgur-Wise function in quenched lattice QCD

## 1 Introduction

The $`BD`$ and $`BD^{}`$ semi-leptonic decays are of considerable phenomenological interest. They provide ample opportunity for interaction between experiment and theory. The ideas of Heavy Quark Symmetry (HQS)  and Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET)  were first developed and applied to these decays. A combination of theoretical and experimental data for semi-leptonic decays can be used to determine the CKM matrix element $`|V_{cb}|`$. HQS allows theoretical control of the non-perturbative (NP) aspects of the calculation around the infinite quark mass limit. In this study we determine the non-perturbative matrix elements directly on the lattice.

HQS can be used to constrain the form of the matrix elements that describe semi-leptonic decays of heavy-light mesons. In particular, the relevant matrix elements are expressed in terms of a set of form factors that contain the non-perturbative physics of the decay:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{D(v^{})|\overline{c}\gamma ^\mu b|B(v)}{\sqrt{m_Bm_D}}}`$ $`=`$ $`(v+v^{})^\mu h_+(\omega )+(vv^{})^\mu h_{}(\omega )`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{D^{}(v^{},ϵ)|\overline{c}\gamma ^\mu b|B(v)}{\sqrt{m_Bm_D^{}}}}`$ $`=`$ $`iϵ^{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }ϵ_\nu ^{}v_\rho ^{}v_\sigma h_V(\omega )`$ (2)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{D^{}(v^{},ϵ)|\overline{c}\gamma ^\mu \gamma ^5b|B(v)}{\sqrt{m_Bm_D^{}}}}`$ $`=`$ $`(\omega +1)ϵ^\mu h_{A_1}(\omega )+`$ (3)
$`[h_{A_2}(\omega )v^\mu +h_{A_3}(\omega )v^\mu ](ϵ^{}v)`$
where $`v,v^{}`$ are the velocities of the initial and the final meson respectively, and $`\omega =vv^{}`$; $`ϵ`$ is the polarisation vector of the $`D^{}`$ meson. The $`\omega `$ variable is kinematically constrained to the interval

$$1\omega \frac{m_B^2+m_{D^{()}}^2}{2m_Bm_{D^{()}}}.$$
(4)
In the limit of infinitely heavy bottom and charm quarks, the six form factors are related to a universal function known as the Isgur-Wise function $`\xi (\omega )`$ . Away from the heavy quark limit this relation is modified by two kinds of corrections: perturbative QCD corrections and heavy quark symmetry breaking corrections. For large enough heavy quark masses, the relationships between the form factors and $`\xi (\omega )`$ are

$$h_j(\omega )=[\alpha _j+\beta _j(m_b,m_c;\omega )+\gamma _j(m_b,m_c;\omega )+𝒪(1/m_{b,c}^2)]\xi (\omega ).$$
(5)
The $`\alpha _j`$ terms are constants that fix the behaviour of the form factors in the heavy quark limit ($`\alpha _+=\alpha _V=\alpha _{A_1}=\alpha _{A_3}=1`$; $`\alpha _{}=\alpha _{A_2}=0`$). The $`\beta _j`$ and $`\gamma _j`$ functions account respectively for radiative corrections and power corrections proportional to the inverse of the heavy quark mass. The radiative corrections are calculable in perturbation theory , while the power corrections are non-perturbative in nature . At zero recoil ($`v=v^{},\omega =1`$) however, Luke’s theorem  guarantees that $`\gamma _+=0`$ and $`\gamma _{A_1}=0`$, which means that power corrections to $`h_+`$ and $`h_{A_1}`$ are of order $`𝒪(1/m_{b,c}^2)`$.

At small recoil, the Isgur-Wise function is modelled by

$$\xi (\omega )=1\rho ^2(\omega 1)+𝒪((\omega 1)^2)$$
(6)
where $`\rho ^2`$ is called the slope parameter and $`\xi (1)=1`$, because of current conservation. Alternative parametrisations of $`\xi (\omega )`$ are possible, which start to differ from (6) at $`𝒪((\omega 1)^2)`$ .

In this paper we present a study of the form factors of the $`BD`$ and $`BD^{}`$ semi-leptonic decays, and the extraction of the Isgur-Wise function in the quenched approximation to lattice QCD. The calculations are performed at two values of the coupling, $`\beta =6.0`$ and $`\beta =6.2`$, using a non-perturbatively improved relativistic Sheikholeslami-Wohlert (SW)  fermion action and current operators, so that the leading discretisation errors appear at $`𝒪(a^2)`$ rather than $`𝒪(a)`$, where $`a`$ is the lattice spacing. Whilst the improvement gives better control over the continuum extrapolation, it does not necessarily reduce the size of lattice artifacts at fixed coupling. With only two values of the coupling, no continuum extrapolation is attempted.

The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. In section $`2`$ we give details of the calculation including extraction of the form factors. In section $`3`$ we describe our determination of the vector and axial current renormalisation constants. In section $`4`$ we report the results of the extraction of the Isgur-Wise function and its slope. Section $`5`$ dwells on the problem of quark mass dependence, while section $`6`$ describes a calculation of ratios of form factors and its comparison with experimental determinations. An analysis of the systematic sources of uncertainty and a comparison with other results is detailed in section $`7`$.

## 2 Details of the calculation

### 2.1 Improvement of action, currents and masses

The improved action used in this work has the form

$$S_{\mathrm{SW}}=S_\mathrm{W}c_{\mathrm{SW}}\frac{i\kappa }{2}\underset{x}{}\overline{\psi }(x)i\sigma _{\mu \nu }F_{\mu \nu }(x)\psi (x)$$
(7)
where $`S_\mathrm{W}`$ is the Wilson action. The improvement programme also requires the improvement of current operators; in particular, the improved vector and axial currents are

$`V_\mu ^\mathrm{I}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`V_\mu (x)+ac_V\stackrel{~}{}_\nu T_{\mu \nu }(x)`$
$`A_\mu ^\mathrm{I}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`A_\mu (x)+ac_A\stackrel{~}{}_\mu P(x)`$ (8)
where

$`V_\mu (x)`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{\psi }(x)\gamma _\mu \psi (x)`$
$`A_\mu (x)`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{\psi }(x)\gamma _\mu \gamma _5\psi (x)`$
$`P(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{\psi }(x)\gamma _5\psi (x)`$
$`T_{\mu \nu }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{\psi }(x)i\sigma _{\mu \nu }\psi (x)`$
and $`\stackrel{~}{}_\mu `$ is the symmetric lattice derivative in the $`\widehat{\mu }`$ direction, defined in terms of the lattice spacing $`a`$ by

$$\stackrel{~}{}_\mu f(x)=\frac{1}{2a}[f(x+a\widehat{\mu })f(xa\widehat{\mu })].$$
(9)
The generic renormalisation of improved current operators is performed as follows $`(J=A,V)`$:

$$J^\mathrm{R}=Z_J(g^2)(1+b_J(g^2)am_q)J^\mathrm{I}$$
(10)
where $`Z_J`$ is calculated in a mass-independent renormalisation scheme. It is conventional to define effective renormalisation constants:

$$Z_J^{\mathrm{eff}}=Z_J(1+b_Jam_q).$$
(11)
The bare quark mass, in terms of hopping parameters, is equal to

$$am_q=\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{1}{\kappa _q}\frac{1}{\kappa _{\mathrm{crit}}}\right)$$
(12)
where $`\kappa _{\mathrm{crit}}`$ is the value of the hopping parameter at which the bare quark mass vanishes. The improved, renormalisation group invariant (RGI) quark mass is defined in the following way

$$a\stackrel{~}{m}_q=Z_mam_q(1+b_mam_q).$$
(13)
A discussion of the different determinations of the improvement coefficients can be found in . We use the NP value of $`c_{\mathrm{SW}}`$ determined by the ALPHA collaboration  and the improvement coefficients for the current operators are taken from Bhattacharya et al. , except for $`Z_m`$ and $`b_m`$. The additive $`b_m`$ coefficient is evaluated at 1-loop in perturbation theory  with the coupling “boosted” by the mean link, $`g^2g^2/u_0^4`$, and $`Z_m`$ is determined non-perturbatively by the ALPHA collaboration .

### 2.2 Simulation details

The lattice spacing is set using the Sommer scale $`r_0`$ . The matrix elements are extracted from combinations of quark propagators corresponding to four values of the heavy quark masses ($`m_{\mathrm{heavy}}m_\mathrm{c}`$) and two values of the mass of the light (passive) quark ($`m_{\mathrm{light}}m_\mathrm{s}`$). Simulation details are summarised in Table 1. The gauge configurations that are used in this calculation were generated with a combination of the over-relaxed  and the Cabibbo-Marinari  algorithms with periodic boundary conditions. The light quark propagators are smeared with the fuzzing technique , while heavy quark propagators are smeared using a gauge invariant technique . The statistical errors are estimated using the bootstrap method .

### 2.3 Extraction of the form factors

The matrix elements relevant to the semi-leptonic decays are extracted from fits to two and three-point correlation functions. The general form of the latter is as follows

$$C_{3\mathrm{p}\mathrm{t},J}^\mu (\stackrel{}{p}_A,t_x;\stackrel{}{p}_B,t_y)=\underset{\stackrel{}{x},\stackrel{}{y}}{}e^{i(\stackrel{}{p}_B\stackrel{}{x}+\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{y})}0|T[\mathrm{\Omega }_B(x)J^\mu (y)\mathrm{\Omega }_A^{}(0)]|0$$
(14)
where $`\stackrel{}{q}=\stackrel{}{p}_B\stackrel{}{p}_A`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_X^{}`$ is the operator that creates the state $`X`$. $`J^\mu `$ is the weak current. We have computed the correlation function using the “standard source” method . The time-slice $`t_x`$ is fixed to $`t_x=28`$, i.e. slightly off the centre of the lattice, in order to allow for an analysis of the different systematic effects of the two sides of the lattice. The extended heavy quark propagators were computed at four values of the hopping parameter. For the active quark propagators, which are part of the current, only two values of the hopping parameter were used at $`\beta =6.2`$ due to disk space constraints and all four were used at $`\beta =6.0`$.

In the Euclidean time formulation, when the time separation of the operators is large enough, i.e. when $`t_y`$ and $`t_xt_y`$ are large, one has

$$C_{3\mathrm{p}\mathrm{t},J}^\mu (\stackrel{}{p}_A,t_x;\stackrel{}{p}_B,t_y)=\frac{Z_A}{2E_A}e^{E_At_y}\frac{Z_B}{2E_B}e^{E_B(t_xt_y)}B(\stackrel{}{p}_B)|J^\mu (0)|A(\stackrel{}{p}_A)$$
(15)
where $`Z_i=0|P_i|P_i(\stackrel{}{p}_i)`$. The $`Z_i`$ constants and the energies $`E_i=\sqrt{|\stackrel{}{p}_i|^2+m_i^2}`$ are extracted from fits of two-point functions (detailed descriptions of the methods employed can be found in ). The $`\{Z_i,E_i\}`$ parameters are then used to cancel the asymptotic time dependence from the three-point function and to extract the desired matrix element from a fit to a plateau. For each value of $`\omega `$ where

$$\omega =\frac{m_B^2+m_{D^{()}}^2q^2}{2m_Bm_{D^{()}}}$$
(16)
an average is performed of all the kinematic and Lorentz channels for which the matrix elements have the same value. An example matrix element is shown in figure 1. All distinct matrix elements are fitted simultaneously to extract the form factors. We examine five kinematic channels, each of them being specified by the values of $`|\stackrel{}{p}_A|,|\stackrel{}{q}|`$. These are summarised in Table 2.

Since the heavy quarks used in this study have masses around that of the charm quark, we are in effect extracting the Isgur-Wise function from a $`DD^{()}`$ decay. Provided that there is little residual mass dependence beyond leading order power and radiative corrections in the form factors, then the machinery of HQS allows us to compare to experimental $`BD^{()}`$ decays.

## 3 Current renormalisation

### 3.1 The vector current

Observing that the degenerate mass vector current is conserved in the continuum, we consider the effective matching coefficient $`Z_V^{\mathrm{eff}}`$, obtained from the forward matrix element of the current between degenerate heavy-light mesons at rest. We then have

$$P(\stackrel{}{0})|V_0|P(\stackrel{}{0})^{\mathrm{cont}}=2M=Z_V^{\mathrm{eff}}P(\stackrel{}{0})|V_0^I|P(\stackrel{}{0})^{\mathrm{latt}}.$$
(17)
In particular, taking the ratio of a heavy-light two-point function, at the extension time-slice, with the forward degenerate matrix element gives,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{C_{2\mathrm{p}\mathrm{t}}(\stackrel{}{p}=\stackrel{}{0};t=t_x)}{C_{3\mathrm{p}\mathrm{t}}^{A=B}(\stackrel{}{p_A}=\stackrel{}{p_B}=\stackrel{}{0};t_x,t_y)}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Z^2e^{Mt_x}}{2M}}\times `$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{(2M)^2}{P(\stackrel{}{0})|V_0^I|P(\stackrel{}{0})^{\mathrm{latt}}Ze^{Mt_y}Ze^{M(t_xt_y)}}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{P(\stackrel{}{0})|V_0^I|P(\stackrel{}{0})^{\mathrm{latt}}}}`$
$`=`$ $`Z_V^{\mathrm{eff}}.`$
The results as a function of bare quark mass, as it appears in equation (11), are given in Table 3. Also shown in the table is the spectator quark mass. We find that the current renormalisation does not depend significantly on the spectator quark mass. The results for $`\beta =6.2`$ have already been reported in . We note a small discrepancy that is accounted for by the following: in  we used the fitted two-point function values of the mass and overlap factor, whereas here we use the two-point function itself to determine $`Z_V^{\mathrm{eff}}`$. This is expected to reduce the statistical errors as the ratio is independent of $`t_y`$.

### 3.2 The axial current

The axial current is not conserved, and so we rely on HQS to determine the effective renormalisation constant. The form factor $`h_{A_1}`$ at zero recoil is equal to unity, up to symmetry breaking corrections, which are reduced to $`𝒪(1/m_Q^2)`$ by Luke’s theorem. This form factor can be measured on the lattice, and is related to the effective renormalisation by,

$$Z_A^{\mathrm{eff}}h_{A_1}^{\mathrm{latt}}(1)=1+\beta _{A_1}(1)+𝒪(1/m_Q^2).$$
(19)
To measure the form factor, we do not rely on degenerate initial and final states only. When they are not degenerate, the renormalisation depends on the average mass of the quarks in the current. Our results are shown in Table 4. Entries that have the repeated average quark mass are taken from matrix elements with the initial and final states interchanged.

### 3.3 Comparison with other determinations

We compare our measurement of the effective renormalisation to equation (11) using values of $`Z_J`$ and $`b_J`$ determined non-perturbatively by the ALPHA collaboration  and Bhattacharya et al. This comparison for the vector current is shown in Figure 2 for the heaviest spectator quark. The agreement is quite striking, especially considering that the ALPHA collaboration determined the coefficients at near zero quark mass and Bhattacharya et al for light quarks (strange scale). Indeed, Bhattacharya et al. have already compared their results at $`\beta =6.2`$ to those in .

For the axial current, there is no NP determination of $`b_A`$ by the ALPHA collaboration. To facilitate a comparison, we use the one-loop value of $`b_A`$

$$b_A=1+0.1522g^2$$
(20)
with the “boosted” coupling, $`g^2=g_0^2/u_0^4`$, where the mean link, $`u_0`$, is evaluated from the 4th root of the average plaquette. This is shown in Figure 3. We also show the values of $`Z_A^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ evaluated in boosted perturbation theory (BPT). Again, our data compares very well to other determinations.

We don’t use our results to determine $`b_J`$ and $`Z_J`$; however, the comparison suggests that lattice artifacts are not spoiling the renormalisation.

## 4 Extraction of the Isgur-Wise function

The form factors that are protected from power corrections by Luke’s theorem are also used to extract the Isgur-Wise function:

$`\xi (\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{h_+(\omega )}{1+\beta _+(\omega )}},`$ (21)
$`\xi (\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{h_{A_1}(\omega )}{1+\beta _{A_1}(\omega )}}.`$ (22)
The power corrections for $`h_+`$ and $`h_{A_1}`$ have been estimated and found to be consistent with zero in the range $`1.0\omega 1.2`$, and therefore are neglected. It is not possible to extract the Isgur-Wise function from the form factors for which $`\alpha _j=0`$ as they differ from zero only by power corrections. In principle it would be possible to measure the power corrections in this way. However, the poor quality of the data for the sub-leading form factors prevents this. Similarly, the $`h_V`$ form factor could not be used because its power correction is found to be large, as expected .

The Isgur-Wise function is fitted to the linear model (6), at both values of the coupling. Simultaneous fits of the Isgur-Wise function from the two distinct decays are also performed; the assumption is made that the effect of mixing different systematic errors (different decays) is no larger than the effect that one gets by fitting simultaneously data from correlators with different momenta. Results are summarised in Tables 5,6 and plotted in Figure 4. The determination of the slope of the Isgur-Wise function at $`\beta =6.2`$ from the simultaneous fit of the two form factors, at the lightest value of the passive quark mass, is taken as the central value.

## 5 Quark mass dependence

Close to the heavy quark limit ($`m_b,m_c\mathrm{}`$), at each fixed value of $`\omega `$, the Isgur-Wise function does not depend on the mass of the heavy quarks. However, the finite size of the simulated masses can introduce a quark mass dependence, which has to be examined.

### 5.1 Light quark mass dependence

In the dataset used in this work, only two values of the passive quark mass are available at each value of the coupling, making light quark mass extrapolations impossible. The values of the form factors with the two different light masses are compared and found to be statistically consistent with each other. However, the global fits of the Isgur-Wise function with the two different passive quarks yield slightly different, if still statistically compatible results. This effect is taken into account as a systematic uncertainty on the extracted slope of the Isgur-Wise function.

Figures 5 and 6 show a comparison of the fits of the Isgur-Wise function with the two different values of the light quark mass, at $`\beta =6.2`$, for both decays.

### 5.2 Heavy quark mass dependence

In this work the radiative corrections are applied, and the Isgur-Wise function is evaluated in a range in $`\omega `$ in which the lattice estimates of the power corrections for $`h_+`$ and $`h_{A_1}`$ are found to be statistically consistent with zero. The Isgur-Wise function is extracted from the form factors by dividing off the radiative corrections. This procedure should remove all residual quark mass dependence at fixed $`\omega `$, if we are sufficiently close to the heavy quark limit. To study any residual heavy quark mass dependence, the Isgur-Wise function is extracted from all the momentum channels, holding all the quark masses fixed. For each heavy quark mass combination, the Isgur-Wise function is fitted, using all the kinematic channels, and its slope is extracted. Then, for each value of the extended quark mass, the result of the fit is plotted against the value of the active quark mass. The results, for both values of $`\beta `$, at fixed values of the light quark mass, are shown in Figures 7 and 8. As one can see, there is no statistically significant heavy quark mass dependence. It should be noted that fixing the quark masses considerably reduces the number of points that are available to each of the fits: consequently, some of the fits are quite poor.

## 6 Ratios of form factors

The two following ratios of form factors are also calculated:

$`R_1(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{h_V(\omega )}{h_{A_1}(\omega )}},`$ (23)
$`R_2(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{h_{A_3}(\omega )+\frac{m_D^{}}{m_B}h_{A_2}(\omega )}{h_{A_1}(\omega )}}.`$ (24)
These two ratios would be equal to one in the absence of symmetry breaking corrections. Figures 9 and 10 show that this work’s determinations are in agreement with the experimental determinations by the CLEO collaboration , that quote

$`R_1`$ $`=`$ $`1.18(32)`$
$`R_2`$ $`=`$ $`0.71(23).`$ (25)
In the case of $`R_1`$ there is some evidence of a systematic deviation between our results and experiment. However, it should be noted that this form factor has a strong dependence on the improvement coefficient of the vector current, $`c_V`$, which is poorly known even at $`\beta =6.2`$.

## 7 Systematic uncertainties and comparison with other results

### 7.1 Systematic uncertainties

Several sources of systematic uncertainty are considered. Discretisation effects are estimated by comparing the results at the two values of $`\beta `$. The results at $`\beta =6.2`$ are taken as our central values. At $`\beta =6.0`$, the extraction of the form factors is affected by considerably larger statistical errors. This is reflected in the large statistical errors on the slope of the Isgur-Wise function.

The systematic uncertainty induced by the scale fixing quantity is evaluated by comparing fits of the Isgur-Wise function using $`r_0`$ and $`m_\rho `$ to set the scale. In all cases, it is found to be an effect smaller than $`1\%`$. This is mainly due to the fact that the radiative corrections depend only logarithmically on the lattice spacing (through quark masses). Furthermore, the effect of the definition of the RGI quark mass and the values of the coefficients $`Z_m`$ and $`b_m`$ only enters through the radiative corrections.

The quark masses used in this calculation are around the charm quark mass. It is necessary to check for any residual heavy quark mass dependence beyond radiative and leading order power corrections. This has been examined and no statistically significant trend has been observed (see section 5.2). No numerical estimate for this is included in our systematic error. The light quark masses are around the strange quark mass, and thus the Isgur-Wise function extracted is $`\xi _s`$ rather than $`\xi `$. We examine the light quark mass dependence by comparing $`\xi `$ measured at the two values of quark mass. An extrapolation is not attempted, but the lightest mass is taken as a central value and the difference as a systematic uncertainty.

The statistical errors on $`h_{A_1}`$ are much larger than those on $`h_+`$ and so the latter form factor dominates the simultaneous fit. Fitting to either form factor on its own produces the same result within statistical error. In all cases, the data satisfy the HQS condition $`\xi (1)=1`$ to such an extent that imposing this condition on the fit has no sizeable effect.

It is rather difficult to quantify the effects of quenching other than by performing the calculation in full QCD. There is some evidence that quenching could have a sizeable effect in heavy-light decay constants , around $`1015\%`$. However, the latter are dimensionful quantities and the scale setting ambiguity in the quenched approximation is sizeable. It is possible that large unquenching effects in the decay constant are at least partly due to the scale setting ambiguity . The Isgur-Wise function is a dimensionless quantity and we have seen that it is almost independent of the choice of the scale fixing quantity. There is some evidence that quenching effects on the ratio $`\xi _s/\xi _d`$ are mild . It is reasonable to assume that quenching effects will not be larger than any other systematic effect in this calculation.

Our systematic uncertainties are then the difference of $`\xi `$ obtained with the two values of the light quark mass ($`+23\%`$), with the two values of the coupling ($`+8\%`$) and with the quantity used to set the scale ($`1\%`$). Positive and negative systematic uncertainties have been separately added in quadrature.

Therefore, our final result is

$$\rho ^2=0.83_{111}^{+15+24}.$$
(26)
### 7.2 Comparison with other results

Other recent lattice results for heavy-light to heavy-light decays have concentrated on computing the value of the physical form factor at zero recoil to extract $`|V_{cb}|`$. They use ratios of matrix elements to cancel uncertainties  and further calculate the HQS breaking corrections . Preliminary UKQCD results on this dataset for $`h_+`$  and $`h_{A_1}`$  are consistent with each other and this work. Previous UKQCD determinations  give $`\rho ^2=1.2_2^{+2}_1^{+2}`$ with the spectator quark mass around strange, and $`\rho ^2=0.9_3^{+2}_2^{+4}`$ when extrapolated to the chiral limit. Hashimoto and Matsufuru  compute $`\xi `$ using lattice HQET, but with an incomplete set of the $`1/m_Q`$ corrections, and quote $`\rho ^2=0.70(17)`$.

We also compare our result for the slope of the Isgur-Wise function to experiment. Both CLEO and Belle have recent measurements of $`BD^{}`$ decays  and quote

$`\rho ^2`$ $`=`$ $`1.67(11)(22)\mathrm{CLEO}`$
$`\rho ^2`$ $`=`$ $`1.35(17)(19)\mathrm{Belle}`$ (27)
Our result is significantly lower than the experimental ones, but consistent with other quenched lattice determinations. However, the experiments measure the slope of $`(\omega )`$, the physical form factor, which is equal to the Isgur-Wise function only in the infinite quark mass limit. Applying radiative corrections $`\eta _A`$ to our results would increase the slope by around $`5\%`$. Considering the size of our uncertainties, this effect is small and we neglect it for this comparison.

The authors acknowledge PPARC grants PPA/G/O/$`1998`$/$`00621`$
and PPA/G/0/$`2000`$/$`00456`$. RDK acknowledges grant PPA/N/S/$`2000`$/$`00217`$, and CMM PPA/P/S/$`1998`$/$`00255`$. The authors thank J.M. Flynn and C. McNeile for discussions. This work was supported by the European Community’s Human potential programme under HPRN-CT-2000-00145 Hadrons/LatticeQCD