In underdoped cuprate superconductors, a rich competition occurs between superconductivity and charge density wave (CDW) order. Whether rotational symmetry breaking (nematicity) occurs intrinsically and generically or as a consequence of other orders is under debate. Here we employ resonant x-ray scattering in stripe-ordered (La,M)_2CuO_4 to probe the relationship between electronic nematicity of the Cu 3d orbitals, structure of the (La,M)_2O_2 layers, and CDW order. We find distinct temperature dependences for the structure of the (La,M)_2O_2 layers and the electronic nematicity of the CuO_2 planes, with only the latter being enhanced by the onset of CDW order. These results identify electronic nematicity as an order parameter that is distinct from a purely structural order parameter in underdoped striped cuprates.
@article{arxiv.1602.02171,
title = {Nematicity in stripe ordered cuprates probed via resonant x-ray scattering},
author = {A. J. Achkar and M. Zwiebler and Christopher McMahon and F. He and R. Sutarto and Isaiah Djianto and Zhihao Hao and M. J. P. Gingras and M. Hücker and G. D. Gu and A. Revcolevschi and H. Zhang and Y. -J. Kim and J. Geck and D. G. Hawthorn},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.02171},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
23 pages including supplementary information, 3 main figures, 4 supplementary figures