Transport measurements of La [sbnd]Nd [sbnd]Sr [sbnd]Cu [sbnd]O superconductors under hydrostatic and uniaxial pressure

Abstract

We investigate the pressure effect on superconducting transition temperature ( T c ) and the Hall coefficeint of La 1.48Nd 0.4Sr 0.12CuO 4 crystal under hydrostatic pressure upto 10 kbar. We found that there was a dramatic change of the Hall coefficient at 2 kbar. The resistivity measurements clearly show the suppression of LTT phase as well as the low temperature upturn at 2 kbar. The uniaxial pressure on the same crystal along a- axis increase T c while T c decreases under the pressure along the c-axis. The suppression of LTT phase with pressure along a-axis with low temperature upturn in resistivity remaining near T c indicates a possible existence of LTT domains in the LTO phase. The uniaxial pressure along the ab-plane turns out to weaken the pinning of stripes (or stripe fluctuations) and in turn to enhance superconductivity in the CuO 2 planes.