Abstract
We report combined soft and hard x-ray scattering studies of the electronic and lattice modulations associated with stripe order in LaBaCuO and LaNdSrCuO. We find that the amplitude of both the electronic modulation of the hole density and the strain modulation of the lattice is significantly larger in LaBaCuO than in LaNdSrCuO and is also better correlated. The in-plane correlation lengths are isotropic in each case; for LaBaCuO, Å, whereas for LaNdSrCuO, Å. We find that the modulations are temperature independent in LaBaCuO in the low temperature tetragonal phase. In contrast, in LaNdSrCuO, the amplitude grows smoothly from zero, beginning 13 K below the LTT phase transition. We speculate that the reduced average tilt angle in LaBaCuO results in reduced charge localization and incoherent pinning, leading to the longer correlation length and enhanced periodic modulation amplitude.
- Received 7 August 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.195101
©2011 American Physical Society