Magnetic states of lightly hole-doped cuprates in the clean limit as seen via zero-field muon spin spectroscopy

We have performed extensive zero-field μSR experiments on pure YBa₂Cu₃O6+y and diluted Y-rare-earth substituted Y0.92Eu0.08Ba₂Cu₃O6+y and Y0.925Nd0.075Ba₂Cu₃O6+y at light hole doping. A common magnetic behavior is detected for all the three families, demonstrating negligible effects of the isovalent Y-substituent disorder. Two distinct regimes are identified, separated by a crossover, whose origin is attributed to the concurrent thermal activation of spin and charge degrees of freedom: a thermally activated and a re-entrant antiferromagnetic regime. The peculiar temperature and hole density dependence of the magnetic moment $m(h,T)$ fit a model with a (spin) activation energy for the crossover between the two regimes throughout the entire investigated range. The magnetic moment is suppressed by a simple dilution mechanism both in the re-entrant regime (0≤h≤0.056) and in the so-called cluster spin glass state coexisting with superconductivity (0.056<h0.08). We argue a common magnetic ground state for these two doping regions and dub it frozen antiferromagnet. Conversely either frustration or finite-size effects prevail in the thermally activated antiferromagnetic state, that vanishes at the same concentration where superconductivity emerges, suggesting the presence of a quantum critical point at hc=0.056(2).