Using strain to uncover the interplay between two- and three-dimensional charge density waves in high-temperature superconducting YBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>y</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38627407.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-47540-w and PMC identifier 11021565.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Uniaxial pressure provides an efficient approach to control charge density waves in YBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>y</sub>. It can enhance the correlation volume of ubiquitous short-range two-dimensional charge-density-wave correlations, and induces a long-range three-dimensional charge density wave, otherwise only accessible at large magnetic fields. Here, we use x-ray diffraction to study the strain dependence of these charge density waves and uncover direct evidence for a form of competition between them. We show that this interplay is qualitatively described by including strain effects in a nonlinear sigma model of competing superconducting and charge-density-wave orders. Our analysis suggests that strain stabilizes the 3D charge density wave in the regions between disorder-pinned domains of 2D charge density waves, and that the two orders compete at the boundaries of these domains. No signatures of discommensurations nor of pair density waves are observed. From a broader perspective, our results underscore the potential of strain tuning as a powerful tool for probing competing orders in quantum materials.