Magnetic-field effects on the in-plane electrical resistivity in the single-crystal La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_4$ and La$_{1.6-x}$Nd$_{0.4}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ around $x=1/8$: Relating to the field-induced stripe order

Abstract

Temperature dependence of the in-plane electrical resistivity, $\rho_{\rm ab}$, in various magnetic fields has been measured in the single-crystal La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_4$ with $x=0.08$, 0.10, 0.11 and La$_{1.6-x}$Nd$_{0.4}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ with $x=0.12$. It has been found that the superconducting transition curve shows a so-called fan-shape broadening in magnetic fields for $x=0.08$, while it shifts toward the low-temperature side in parallel with increasing field for $x=0.11$ and 0.12 where the charge-spin stripe order is formed at low temperatures. As for $x=0.10$, the broadening is observed in low fields and it changes to the parallel shift in high fields above 9 T. Moreover, the normal-state value of $\rho_{\rm ab}$ at low temperatures markedly increases with increasing field up to 15 T. It is possible that these pronounced features of $x=0.10$ are understood in terms of the magnetic-field-induced stabilization of the stripe order suggested from the neutron-scattering measurements in the La-214 system. The $\rho_{\rm ab}$ in the normal state at low temperatures has been found to be proportional to ln(1/$T$) for $x=0.10$, 0.11 and 0.12. The ln(1/$T$) dependence of $\rho_{\rm ab}$ is robust even in the stripe-ordered state.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, ver. 2 has been accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.