  We demonstrated experimentally a direct way to probe a hidden propensity to
the formation of spin density wave (SDW) in a non-magnetic metal with strong
Fermi surface nesting. Substituting Fe for a tiny amount of Cu (1%) induced an
incommensurate magnetic order below 20 K in heavily-overdoped La2-xSrxCuO4
(LSCO). Elastic neutron scattering suggested that this order cannot be ascribed
to the localized spins on Cu or doped Fe. Angle-resolved photoemission
spectroscopy (ARPES), combined with numerical calculations, revealed a strong
Fermi surface nesting inherent in the pristine LSCO that likely drives this
order. The heavily-overdoped Fe-doped LSCO thus represents the first plausible
example of the long-sought "itinerant-spin extreme" of cuprates, where the
spins of itinerant doped holes define the magnetic ordering ground state. This
finding complements the current picture of cuprate spin physics that highlights
the predominant role of localized spins at lower dopings. The demonstrated set
of methods could potentially apply to studying hidden density-wave
instabilities of other "nested" materials on the verge of density wave
ordering.
