Complementary Response of Static Spin-Stripe Order and Superconductivity to Nonmagnetic Impurities in Cuprates

We report muon-spin rotation and neutron-scattering experiments on nonmagnetic Zn impurity effects on the static spin-stripe order and superconductivity of the La214 cuprates. Remarkably, it was found that, for samples with hole doping x ≈ 1/8, the spin-stripe ordering temperature T_so decreases linearly with Zn doping y and disappears at y ≈ 4%, demonstrating a high sensitivity of static spin-stripe order to impurities within a CuO₂ plane. Moreover, T_so is suppressed by Zn in the same manner as the superconducting transition temperature T_c for samples near optimal hole doping. This surprisingly similar sensitivity suggests that the spin-stripe order is dependent on intertwining with superconducting correlations.