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Testing for pair density wave order in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4

We report charge order is commonly believed to compete with superconducting order. An intertwined form of a superconducting wave function, known as pair density wave (PDW) order, has been proposed; however, direct evidence, theoretical or experimental, that it forms the ground state of any cuprate s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2022-11, Vol.106 (17)
Main Authors: Lozano, P. M., Ren, Tianhao, Gu, G. D., Tsvelik, A. M., Tranquada, J. M., Li, Qiang
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We report charge order is commonly believed to compete with superconducting order. An intertwined form of a superconducting wave function, known as pair density wave (PDW) order, has been proposed; however, direct evidence, theoretical or experimental, that it forms the ground state of any cuprate superconductor is lacking. As a test case, we consider La 2-xBaxCuO4 with x = 1/8, where charge and spin stripe orders within the CuO2 planes compete with three-dimensional superconducting order. We report measurements of the superconducting critical current perpendicular to the planes in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field. The variation of the critical current with orientation of the field is inconsistent with a theoretical prediction specific to the PDW model. It appears, instead, that the orientation dependence of the critical-current density might be determined by a minority phase of d-wave superconductivity that is present as a consequence of doped-charge inhomogeneity.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.106.174510