Structure of Charge Density Waves in La${}_{1.875}$Ba${}_{0.125}$CuO${}_4$

Abstract

Although charge-density wave (CDW) correlations exist in several families of cuprate supercon-ductors, they exhibit substantial variation in CDW wavevector and correlation length, indicating a key role for CDW-lattice interactions. We investigated this interaction in La${}_{1.875}$Ba${}_{0.125}$CuO${}_4$ using single crystal x-ray diffraction to collect a large number of CDW peak intensities, and determined the Cu and La/Ba atomic distortions induced by the formation of CDW order. Within the CuO${}_2$ planes, the distortions involve a periodic modulation of the Cu-Cu spacing along the direction of the ordering wave vector. The charge ordering within the copper-oxygen layer induces an out-of-plane breathing modulation of the surrounding lanthanum layers, which leads to a related distortion on the adjacent copper-oxygen layer. Our result implies that the CDW-related structural distortions do not remain confined to a single layer but rather propagate an appreciable distance through the crystal. This leads to overlapping structural modulations, in which CuO${}_2$ planes exhibit distortions arising from the orthogonal CDWs in adjacent layers as well as distortions from the CDW within the layer itself. We attribute this striking effect to the weak c-axis charge screening in cuprates and suggest this effect could help couple the CDW between adjacent planes in the crystal.

9 pages; Accepted in Phys. Rev. B

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Cited by in corpus (6)

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• Diffuse Scattering from Correlated Electron Systems
• Tuning of Charge Order by Uniaxial Stress in a Cuprate Superconductor
• Spin canting and lattice symmetry in La${}_2$CuO${}_4$
• La${}_{2-x}$Ba${}_x$CuO${}_4$ as a superconducting Rosetta Stone
• Contrasting $c$-axis and in-plane uniaxial stress effects on superconductivity and stripe order in La${}_{1.885}$Ba${}_{0.115}$CuO${}_4$