Competition between Superconductivity and Charge Stripe Order in High Tc Cuprates

Members of the high Tc cuprate family (with defect free $CuO_2$ planes) are suggested to have an `{\em Intrinsic single layer superconducting} Tc', larger than the experimentally observed Tc, at a given hole concentration. This difference occurs to varying degrees among the different members, due to an anomalous response of the d-wave superconducting state to self generated charge perturbations. In particular, any quasi elastic charge stripe order, arising from electron-electron and electron- lattice coupling, can suppress the large intrinsic superconducting Tc. Existing experimental results on the wide Tc variation in the single layer cuprate families, such as the low Tc ($\approx 38 K, 33 K$) of LSCO and Bi-2201 compared to high Tc ($\approx 95 K, 98 K$) of Tl-2201 and Hg-1201, the strain induced increase in Tc (25 to 50 K) observed in LSCO are qualitatively explained by our mechanism. We predict that under proper epitaxial strain the Tc of LSCO and Bi-2201 should increase from 30's all the way upto the intrinsic Tc $\sim$ 90 K, at optimal doping.