Comparison of stripe modulations in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 and La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4

We report combined soft and hard x-ray scattering studies of the electronic and lattice modulations associated with stripe order in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 and La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4. We find that the amplitude of both the electronic modulation of the hole density and the strain modulation of the lattice is significantly larger in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 than in La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4 and is also better correlated. The in-plane correlation lengths are isotropic in each case; for La1.875Ba0.125CuO4, xi(hole) = 255 +/- 5 angstrom, whereas for La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4, xi(hole) = 111 +/- 7 angstrom. We find that the modulations are temperature independent in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 in the low temperature tetragonal phase. In contrast, in La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4, the amplitude grows smoothly from zero, beginning 13 K below the LTT phase transition. We speculate that the reduced average tilt angle in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 results in reduced charge localization and incoherent pinning, leading to the longer correlation length and enhanced periodic modulation amplitude.