A novel negative oxygen-isotope (16 O/ 18 O) effect (OIE) on the low-temperature tetragonal phase transition temperature TLTT was observed in La2−xBaxCuO4 (x = 1/8) using high-resolution neutron powder diffraction. The corresponding OIE exponent αT LTT = -0.36(5) has the same sign as αT so = -0.57(6) found for the spin-stripe order temperature Tso. The fact that the LTT transition is accompanied by charge ordering (CO) implies the presence of an OIE also for the CO temperature Tco. Furthermore, a temperature dependent shortening of the c-axis with the heavier isotope is observed. These results combined with model calculations demonstrate that anharmonic electron-lattice interactions are essential for all transitions observed in the stripe phase of cuprates.PACS numbers: 61.05.fm, 71.45.Lr Since the discovery of high temperature superconductivity in La 2−x Ba x CuO 4 (LBCO) [1] numerous intensive studies have revealed a complex interplay between charge, spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom [2, 3]. While the phase diagram of this cuprate family displays a generic complexity, a specific peculiarity is associated with it. In addition to the phase transition from the high temperature tetragonal (HTT) phase with space group I4/mmm to the low temperature orthorhombic (LTO) phase (Bmab), a further transition takes place in LBCO from the LTO to a low temperature tetragonal ( . This specific doping level is associated with static stripe order and linked to charge-spin-ordering [7][8][9][10][11][12]. The static charge order (CO) appears at the same temperature T co T LTT 55 K, and spin order (SO) sets in at T so 35 K [5].These results provide clear evidence for a subtle interplay between lattice, spin, and charge degrees of freedom. The experimental data indicate that uni-directional stripe-like ordering is common to cuprates [13][14][15]. Despite of various attempts [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], no consensus on the microscopic mechanism of stripe formation and the relevance of stripe correlations for high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates has been achieved.The great interest in structural aspects of cuprates is related to the original idea leading to their discovery, namely, Jahn-Teller polarons [1][2][3]. Substantial experimental evidences for a strong electron-lattice interaction has been reported for cuprates (see, e.g., [24,25] 32] showing stripe order at x = 1/8 [33,34]. Recently, we observed substantial OIE's on magnetic quantities characterizing the static spin-stripe order in La 2−x Ba x CuO 4 with x = 1/8 (LBCO-1/8) [23]. However, no OIE investigations on the LTT phase transition and charge order in 1/8 doped cuprates have been reported.In this letter we report a new negative OIE on T LTT in LBCO-1/8 determined by means of high-resolution neutron powder diffraction with an OIE exponent α TLTT = -0.35(5), which has the same sign as α Tso = -0.57(6) found for the spin-stripe order temperature T so [23]. Since the LTT transition is accompanied by static charge order, we expect an OIE also to...