Relevance of magnetism to cuprate superconductivity: Lanthanides versus charge-compensated cuprates

Abstract: We address what seemed to be a contradiction between the lanthanide series REBa$2$Cu$_3$O$_y$ (RE123) and the charge-compensated series (Ca${x}$La${1-x}$)(Ba${1.75-x}$La${0.25+x} $)Cu${3}$O$_{y}$ (CLBLCO) regarding the superexchange ($J$) dependence of the maximum superconductivity (SC) critical temperature $T_c^{max}(J)$; RE and $x$ are implicit variables. This is done by measuring the N\'{e}el temperature and the temperature dependence of the magnetic order parameter for RE=Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy, Yb, Y, and for Y(BaSr)Cu$_3$O$_y$, at various very light dopings. The doping is determined by thermopower, and the magnetic properties by muon spin rotation. We find that the normalized-temperature dependence of the order parameter is identical for all RE123 in the undoped limit (with the exception of Gd123) implying identical out-of-plane magnetic coupling. The extrapolation of $T_N$ to zero doping suggests that, despite the variations in ionic radii, $J$ varies too weakly in this system to test the relation between SC and magnetism. This stands in contrast to CLBLCO where both $T_c^{max}$ and $T_N^{max}$ vary considerably in the undoped limit, and a positive correlation between the two quantities was observed.