Evolution of magnetic stripes under uniaxial stress in La1.885Ba0.115CuO4 studied by neutron scattering

Abstract

We present the effect of uniaxial stress on the magnetic stripes in the cuprate system La2-xBaxCuO4 with x=0.115, previously found to have a stress-induced enhancement in the superconducting transition temperature. By means of neutron scattering, we confirm that the static stripes are suppressed by stress, pointing towards a trade-off between superconductivity and static magnetism, in direct agreement with previously reported muon spin rotation measurements. Additionally, we show that some of the reduced weight in the elastic channel appears to have moved to the inelastic channel, while we can exclude the opening of a spin gap down to an energy of 1 meV. Moreover, a stress-induced momentum shift of the fluctuations towards the typical 1/8 value of commensurability is observed, while no change in periodicity is seen in the static stripe signal. These results impose a strong constraint on the theoretical interpretation of stress-enhanced superconductivity in cuprate systems.