Observation of two types of charge-density-wave orders in superconducting La_2-xSr_xCuO₄

Density wave orders, including charge- and spin-density-wave (CDW/SDW), have been widely observed in cuprate superconductors. However, to fully elucidate the relationship between the density wave orders and high temperature superconductivity (SC) has been challenging. Here we use resonant soft X-ray scattering to study the CDW order in superconducting La_2-xSr_xCuO₄ (LSCO) over a broad doping range. We discover two types of CDW orders in LSCO, namely CDW stripe order and CDW short-range order (SRO). They exhibit distinct interactions with SC that are not simply competitive. While the CDW-SRO is suppressed by SC, it is partially transformed into the CDW stripe order which keeps growing with developing SDW stripe order below the superconducting T_c. Our findings suggest that the stripe orders and SC are inhomogeneously distributed in the superconducting CuO₂ planes, and point to the emergence of a heterogeneous low temperature state as a result of the intricate interplay between CDW, SDW, and SC in LSCO.