Oxygen vacancy ordering and superconductivity in YBa2Cu3O7−x

✍ Scribed by J.D. Jorgensen; H. Shaked; D.G. Hinks; B. Dabrowski; B.W. Veal; A.P. Paulikas; L.J. Nowicki; G.W. Crabtree; W.K. Kwok; L.H. Nunez; H. Claus

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 308 KB
• Volume: 153-155
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-4534
• DOI: 10.1016/0921-4534(88)90721-6

✦ Synopsis

The superconducting properties of YBa2Cu307-x have been shown to depend markedly on the overall oxygen stoichiometry and on the ordering of oxygen vacancies on the available sites.

YBa2Cu307_ x has been studied in situ by high-temperature neutron powder diffraction in controlled oxygen atmospheres in order to learn the structural properties of the system in thermodynamic equilibrium.

Additionally, metastable, oxygen-deficient samples produced by quenching into liquid nitrogen from high temperature and various oxygen partial pressures have been studied at room temperature or low temperature in order to correlate the structural and superconducting properties. Such experiments have shown that a systematic relationship exists between the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, the number of oxygen vacancies, and the degree of oxygen vacancy ordering.

This brief paper reviews our work in these areas.