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Radicals serve as source in dynamic nuclear polarization, but may also act as polarization sink. If the coupling between the electron spins and different nuclear reservoirs is stronger than any of the reservoirs' couplings to the lattice, radicals can mediate hetero-nuclear mixing. Here, we report radical-enhanced $^{13}$C relaxation in pyruvic acid doped with trityl. We find a linear dependence of the carbon $T_1$ on field between 5 mT and 2 T. We extend a model, employed previously for protons, to carbon, and predict efficient proton-carbon mixing via the radical Non-Zeeman reservoir, for fields from 20 mT to beyond 1 T. Discrepancies between the observed carbon relaxation and the model are attributed to enhanced direct hetero-nuclear mixing due to trityl-induced linebroadening, and a field-dependent carbon diffusion from the radical vicinity to the bulk. Measurements of hetero-nuclear polarization transfer up to 600 mT confirm the predicted mixing as well as both effects inferred from the relaxation analysis., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

High-temperature superconducting cuprates respond to doping with a dome-like dependence of their critical temperature ($T_{\mathrm{c}}$). But the family specific maximum $T_\mathrm{c}$ can be surpassed by application of pressure, a compelling observation known for decades. We investigate the phenomenon with high-pressure anvil cell nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and measure the charge content at planar Cu and O, and with it the doping of the ubiquitous CuO$_2$ plane with atomic scale resolution. We find that pressure increases the overall doping, as widely assumed, but when it enhances $T_\mathrm{c}$ above what can be achieved by doping, it leads to a hole redistribution favoring planar O. This is similar to the observation that the family-specific maximum $T_\mathrm{c}$ also increases if the hole content at planar O is raised at the expense of that at planar Cu. Thus, the pressure-induced enhancement of $T_\mathrm{c}$ points to the same mechanism., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

Nuclear relaxation is an important thermodynamic probe of electronic excitations, in particular in conducting and superconducting systems. Here, an empirical phenomenology based on all available literature data for planar Cu in hole-doped cuprates is developed. It is found that most of the seemingly different relaxation rates among the systems are due to a temperature independent anisotropy that affects the mostly measured $1/T_{1\parallel}$, the rate with an external magnetic field along the crystal $c$-axis, while $1/T_{1\perp}$ is largely independent on doping and material above the critical temperature of superconductivity ($T_c$). This includes very strongly overdoped systems that show Fermi liquid behavior and obey the Korringa law. Below $T_c$ the relaxation rates are similar, as well, if plotted against the reduced temperature $T/T_c$. Thus, planar Cu nuclear relaxation is governed by a simple, dominant mechanism that couples the nuclei with varying anisotropy to a rather ubiquitous bath of electronic excitations that appear Fermi liquid-like irrespective of doping and family. In particular, there is no significant enhancement of the relaxation due to electronic spin fluctuations, different from earlier conclusions. Only the La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ family appears to be an outlier as additional relaxation is present, however, the anisotropy remains temperature independent. Also systems with very low doping levels, for which there is a lack of data, may behave differently., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

Cuprate superconductors still hold many open questions, in particular concerning their normal state properties, including the role of charge ordering. Nuclear magnetic resonance on $^{63,65}$Cu and $^{17}$O in the CuO$_2$ plane is a very sensitive bulk probe of charge variations, but not properly understood. Since early NMR, the oxygen satellite line splittings in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+y}$ were attributed to the orthorhombic distortion, while they could also be due to charge ordering. We employ high pressure NMR on YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.9}$ hoping that charge order would respond to pressure differently than the chemical lattice. That is what we find, and we prove the existence of charge ordering even at ambient conditions. As pressure increases we can follow its local symmetry and amplitude as function temperature. Our finding differ from what has been reported with other techniques so far, but also show similarities that will be discussed. We also offer evidence from literature NMR data that this charge ordering is ubiquitous to the CuO$_2$ plane., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures; Supplement with 7 pages, 10 figures

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) shifts, if stripped off their uncertainties, must hold key information about the electronic fluid in the cuprates. The early shift interpretation that favored a single-fluid scenario will be reviewed, as well as recent experiments that reported its failure. Thereafter, based on literature shift data for planar Cu a contrasting shift phenomenology for cuprate superconductors is developed, which is very different from the early view while being in agreement with all published data. For example, it will be shown that the hitherto used hyperfine scenario is inadequate as a large isotropic shift component is discovered. Furthermore, the changes of the temperature dependences of the shifts above and below the superconducting transitions temperature proceed according to a few rules that were not discussed before. It appears that there can be substantial spin shift at the lowest temperature if the magnetic field lies in the CuO$_2$ plane, which points to a localization of spin in the $3d(x^2-y^2)$ orbital. A simple model is presented based on the most fundamental findings. The analysis must have new consequences for theory of the cuprates.

Universal scaling laws can guide the understanding of new phenomena, and for cuprate high-temperature superconductivity such an early influential relation showed that the critical temperature of superconductivity ($T_c$) correlates with the density of the superfluid measured at low temperatures. This famous Uemura relation has been inspiring the community ever since. Here we show that the charge content of the bonding orbitals of copper and oxygen in the ubiquitous CuO$_2$ plane, accessible with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), is tied to the Uemura scaling. This charge distribution between copper and oxygen varies between cuprate families and with doping, and it allows us to draw a new phase diagram that has different families sorted with respect to their maximum $T_c$. Moreover, it also shows that $T_c$ could be raised substantially if we were able to synthesize materials in which more oxygen charge is transferred to the approximately half filled copper orbital.

The distribution of electrons and holes in the CuO$_2$ plane of the high-temperature superconducting cuprates is determined with nuclear magnetic resonance through the quadrupole splittings of $^{17}$O and $^{63}$Cu. Based on new data for single crystals of electron-doped Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$(x=0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15) as well as Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ (x=0, 0.13) the changes in hole contents $n_d$ of Cu 3d$(x^2-y^2)$ and $n_p$ of O 2$p_\sigma$ orbitals are determined and they account for the stoichiometrically doped charges, similar to hole-doped \lsco. It emerges that while $n_d+2n_p=1$ in all parent materials as expected, $n_d$ and $n_p$ vary substantially between different groups of materials. Doping holes increases predominantly $n_p$, but also $n_d$. To the contrary, doping electrons predominantly decreases $n_d$ and only slightly $n_p$. However, $n_p$ for the electron doped systems is higher than that in hole doped La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_4$. Cuprates with the highest maximum $T_{\rm c}$s appear to have a comparably low $n_d$ while, at the same time, $n_p$ is very high. The rather high oxygen hole content of the Pr$_2$CuO$_4$ and Nd$_2$CuO$_4$ with the low $n_d$ seems to make them ideal candidates for hole doping to obtain the highest $T_{\rm c}$., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

The phase diagram of the superconducting cuprates is often used to show how their electronic properties change as a function of the mean doping level, i.e., the average hole content of the CuO$_2$ plane. In Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) experiments average doping, as well as the distribution of these holes between planar Cu and O reveals itself through the quadrupole splittings of the $^{63,65}$Cu and $^{17}$O NMR. Here we argue based on all published NMR data available to us in favor a new type of phase diagram that has the planar oxygen quadrupole splitting and with it the planar oxygen hole content as abscissa rather than the average hole content of the CuO$_2$ plane. In such a plot the superconducting domes of the different cuprate families are shifted horizontally according to their maximum critical temperature $T_{\rm c,max}$ set by the chemistry of the parent material, which determines its oxygen hole content. The higher the O hole content the higher $T_{\rm c,max}$ that can be achieved by actual doping. These findings also offer a strategy for finding cuprates with higher $T_{\rm c,max}$.

We report on the temperature dependence of $^{63}$Cu and $^{199}$Hg NMR magnetic shifts and linewidths for an optimally doped and an underdoped HgBa$_{2}$CuO$_{4+\delta}$ single crystal, as well as the quadrupole splitting and its distribution for $^{63}$Cu. From the $^{63}$Cu and $^{199}$Hg \textit{magnetic shifts} we have recently concluded on the existence of two spin components with different temperature dependencies [J. Haase, D. Rybicki, C. P. Slichter, M. Greven, G. Yu, Y. Li, and X. Zhao, Phys. Rev. B 85, 104517 (2012)]. Here we give a comprehensive account of all data and focus on the linewidths and quadrupole splittings. While the $^{63}$Cu quadrupole coupling and its distribution are by and large temperature independent, we identify three regions in temperature for which the magnetic widths differ significantly: at the lowest temperatures the magnetic linewidths are dominated by the rigid fluxoid lattice that seems to have disappeared above about 60 K. In the intermediate temperature region, starting above 60 K, the magnetic linewidth is dominated by the spatial distribution of the magnetic shift due to the pseudogap spin component, and grows linearly with the total shift up to about \textit{$\sim$}170-230 K, depending on sample and nucleus. Above this temperature the third region begins with an sudden narrowing where the second, Fermi-liquid-like spin component becomes homogeneous. We show that all linewidths, quadrupolar as well as magnetic, above the fluxoid dominated region can be understood with a simple model that assumes a coherent charge density variation with concomitant variations of the two spin components. In addition, we find a temperature independent spin based broadening in both samples that is incoherent with the other broadening for the underdoped crystal, but becomes coherent for the optimally doped crystal.