Stripe-like correlations in the cuprates from oxygen NMR

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of planar oxygen, with its family independent phenomenology, is ideally suited to probe the nature of the quantum matter of superconducting cuprates. Here, with new experiments on La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$, in particular also at high doping levels, we report on short-range stripe-like correlations between local charge and spin. The amplitudes of the spin and charge variations at room temperature are nearly independent of doping up to at least $x=0.30$. However, the correlation is inverted upon passing $x=1/4$. Despite the atomic scale length, the variations still resemble the average spin and charge relation. Literature data show the correlations to be generic to the cuprates.