Zooming-in on the charge ordering in YBa2Cu3O6.5

Abstract

We report direct evidence of charge/orbital ordering of low energy electronic states of $Cu$ in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$ ortho-II phase in both the $CuO_3$ chain and the CuO$_2$ plane. Huge enhancement of the $({1/2},0,0)$ superstructure Bragg peak is observed when photon energy is tuned to the $Cu L_{2,3}$ absorption edge with large polarization dependence. The ordering in the $CuO_2$ plane discovered here sheds new light on how the one dimensional $Cu-O$ chains affect the $CuO_2$ plane, and why many normal and superconducting state properties of this system exhibit strong anisotropy.