New Developments in Cuprate Materials III: Transport Phenomena & New Approaches to the Superconducting State

11:30 am – 2:18 pm, Thursday March 20 // Session MAR-S24 //Anaheim Convention Center, 255C (Level 2)

Chair:: Timothy Benseman, Queens College, City University of New York
Topics:
Sponsored by: DCMP

Designing the stripe-ordered cuprate phase diagram through uniaxial-stress

1:30 pm – 1:42 pm

Presenter: Zurab Guguchia (Paul Scherrer Institute)

Authors: Debarchan Das (Paul Scherrer Institute), Gediminas Simutis (Paul Scherrer Institute), Tadashi Adachi (Sophia University), Vahid Sazgari (Paul Scherrer Institute), Shams Islam (Paul Scherrer Institute), Jennifer Graham (Paul Scherrer Institute), Julia Küspert (University of Zurich), Nobuyoshi Kitajima (Tohoku University), Vadim Grinenko (Technische Universitat Dresden), Oleh Ivashko (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY), Martin v Zimmermann (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY), Markus Müller (Paul Scherrer Institute), Charles Mielke III (Paul Scherrer Institute), Fabian Hotz (Paul Scherrer Institute), Toni Shiroka (Paul Scherrer Institue), Marek Bartkowiak (Paul Scherrer Institute), Clifford Hicks (University of Birmingham), Genda Gu (Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)), John Tranquada (Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)), Hans Henning Klauss (Technische Universitat Dresden), Johan Chang (Universität Zürich), Marc Janoschek (Paul Scherrer Institute), Hubertus Luetkens (Paul Scherrer Institute)

The ability to efficiently control charge and spin in the cuprate high-temperature superconductors is crucial for fundamental research and underpins technological development. Here, we explore the tunability of magnetism, superconductivity and crystal structure in the stripe phase of the cuprate La_2-xBa_xCuO₄, with x = 0.115, 0.125 and 0.135, by employing temperature-dependent (down to 400 mK) muon-spin rotation, AC susceptibility, electrical transport as well as X-ray scattering experiments under compressive uniaxial stress in the CuO₂ plane and along the c-axis [1,2]. A sixfold increase of the 3-dimensional (3D) superconducting critical temperature T_c and a full recovery of the 3D phase coherence is observed in all three samples with the application of extremely low in-plane uniaxial stress of 0.1 GPa. This finding demonstrates the removal of the well-known 1/8-anomaly of cuprates by in-plane uniaxial stress. On the other hand, the spin-stripe order temperature as well as the magnetic fraction at 400 mK show only a modest decrease under stress. Moreover, the onset temperatures of 3D superconductivity and spin-stripe order are very similar in the large stress regime. However, strain produces an inhomogeneous suppression of the spin stripe order at elevated temperatures. Namely, a substantial decrease of the magnetic volume fraction and a full suppression of the low-temperature tetragonal structure is found under stress, which is a necessary condition for the development of the 3D superconducting phase with optimal T_c. Regarding the c-axis strain, it has a negligible effect on both the superconducting transition temperature and the spin-stripe order. Our results evidence a remarkable cooperation between the long-range static spin-stripe order and the underlying crystalline order with the three-dimensional fully coherent superconductivity.

[1] Z. Guguchia et. al., Proc. Natl. Acd. Sci. U.S.A 121(1), e2303423120 (2024).

[2] V. Sazgari, S.S. Islam, J.N. Graham et. al., and Z. Guguchia, in preparation.

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