Spontaneous symmetry breaking by charge stripes in the high pressure phase of superconducting La1.875Ba0.125CuO4

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Feb 5;104(5):057004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.057004. Epub 2010 Feb 3.

Abstract

In those cases where charge-stripe order has been observed in cuprates, the crystal structure is such that the average rotational symmetry of the CuO2 planes is reduced from fourfold to twofold. As a result, one could argue that the reduced lattice symmetry is essential to the existence of stripe order. We use pressure to restore the average fourfold symmetry in a single crystal of La1.875Ba0.125CuO4, and show by x-ray diffraction that charge-stripe order still occurs. Thus, electronically driven stripe order can spontaneously break the lattice symmetry.