Response of electronic nematicity and charge order under uniaxial strain in cuprate superconductors*

There is a growing realization that the essential physics of many quantum materials, such as high-temperature superconductors, involves a complex interplay between many different electronic phases (charge density wave order, superconductivity, magnetism, orbital order, nematicity) that have very similar energy and temperature scales. Understanding how these phases compete, co-exist, and sometimes co-operate is of general interest to a wide family of materials. 

Here we elucidate how charge density wave order (CDW) in a canonical La-based cuprate superconductor La_2-xM_xCuO₄ (M = Sr, Nd) is influenced by electronic nematicity (a breaking of the rotational symmetry of the electronic structure) and structural distortions of the lattice using resonant soft x-ray scattering on samples under applied uniaxial strain.