X-ray diffraction studies of charge density waves in cuprate superconductors: A brief review

High temperature superconductivity in the cuprates has fascinated scientists for more than 25 years, but there is still no consensus on the pairing mechanism. Soon after the discovery of high temperature superconductivity, it was suggested that the cuprates have an incipient tendency towards spatial electronic order – spin and charge order. In this paper, I will review X-ray diffraction studies of charge density waves in the cuprates. These results, by a number of different groups, indicate that short-range charge correlations exist across the cuprate family, and in many cases are clearly competing with the superconductivity.