Negative oxygen isotope effect on the static spin stripe order in superconducting La(2-x)Ba(x)CuO(4) (x=1/8) observed by muon-spin rotation

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Aug 1;113(5):057002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.057002. Epub 2014 Jul 30.

Abstract

Large negative oxygen-isotope (^{16}O and ^{18}O) effects (OIEs) on the static spin-stripe-ordering temperature T_{so} and the magnetic volume fraction V_{m} were observed in La_{2-x}Ba_{x}CuO_{4}(x=1/8) by means of muon-spin-rotation experiments. The corresponding OIE exponents were found to be α_{T_{so}}=-0.57(6) and α_{V_{m}}=-0.71(9), which are sign reversed to α_{T_{c}}=0.46(6) measured for the superconducting transition temperature T_{c}. This indicates that the electron-lattice interaction is involved in the stripe formation and plays an important role in the competition between bulk superconductivity and static stripe order in the cuprates.