Dependence of Tc of YBa2Cu3O6.67 on in-plane uniaxial stress

We acknowledge the financial support of the Max Planck Society. A.P.M. and C.W.H. acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through SFB 1143 (Project ID 247310070). M.K. acknowledges financial support from ANR LABEX Grant No. ANR-10-LABX-0039-PALM.We probe the effect on Tc of in-plane uniaxial stress applied to the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O6.67. We find a highly anisotropic response. Under compression along the b axis, which reduces the orthorhombicity of the CuO2 planes, Tc is broadly flat for stresses up to at least 1.7 GPa. Under compression along the a axis, Tc decreases steeply. For stresses beyond ≈1 GPa the decrease is quasilinear. We hypothesize that superconductivity is suppressed by competition with uniaxial charge density wave order, which has been found to onset at ≈1 GPa.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe