Structure of grain boundaries in YBa2Cu3O7 thin-film step-edge junctions

The atomic structure of 90° [100] (or [010]) tilt grain boundaries in YBa₂Cu₃O₇ thin-film step-edge junctions and, for comparison, in the interface between a-axis and c-axis oriented YBa₂Cu₃O₇ grains is investigated by means of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. For (100)(001)-type boundaries two different structures are found. In the first a (001) CuO₂ plane of one grain faces a (100) Y–Ba–O plane of the other grain, in the second a (001) BaO plane faces a (100) Cu–O plane. In the former structure an incomplete unit cell of YBa₂Cu₃O₇ terminates at the boundary and a smaller strain in the adjacent CuO₂ planes is detected in comparison with the latter. It is found that a combination of a partial dislocation with a 124 stacking fault is a way to accommodate the lattice mismatch between c and 3a of YBa₂Cu₃O₇ in the boundary. For a symmetric (103)(103)-type boundary a displacement of the Cu-atoms of the CuO₂ planes is found near the boundary plane. From this a redistribution of the oxygen atoms around the Y-atoms located right in the boundary plane is inferred. The possible effect of the boundary structure on the superconducting properties of YBa₂Cu₃O₇ films is discussed.     

Copper and oxygen vibrations in La2CuO4 and YBa2Cu3O7

We perform eV neutron scattering experiments (neutron energy > 1 eV) on copper metal, CuO, La₂CuO₄ and YBa₂Cu₃O₇, and neutron absorption experiments of HoBa₂Cu₃O₇, and determined the mean kinetic energy of O, Cu and other atoms in these materials. The Debye temperatures of Cu atoms in La₂CuO₄ and YBa₂Cu₃O₇ were estimated to be extremely large, about 1500 and 2000 K, respectively.     

Interface and grain boundary structures in YBa2Cu3O7-x and YBa2Cu4O8 materials

Y₂BaCuO₅YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x (Y211/Y123) interfaces in melt-processed YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x were studied by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Yttrium enrichment and barium depletion were observed locally at the Y211/Y123 interfaces where Y123 (001) facets were present. This effect may be interpreted as the result of lattice substitution of Ba by Y near these interfaces. Cation nonstoichiometry was found near Y211/Y123 interfaces where liquid phases (Cu-Ba-O) were present. This chemical disorder introduces numerous point defects in the Y123, and these defects may act as additional pinning sites alongwith stacking faults. A comparison of grain boundary (GB) chemical composition in polycrystalline YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x and YBa₂Cu₄O₈(Y124), studied using nanoprobe parallel-detection electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), is presented. The studies of Y124 show that stoichiometric grain boundaries can also form weak links between superconducting grains. It is suggested that weak-link behavior is determined largely by misorientation at grain boundaries.     

In-plane polarized collective modes in detwinned YBa2Cu3O6.95 observed by spectral ellipsometry

The in-plane dielectric response of detwinned YBa₂Cu₃O_6.95 has been studied by far-infared ellipsometry. A surprisingly large number of in-plane polarized modes are observed. Some of them correspond to pure phonon modes. Others possess a large electronic contribution which strongly increases in the superconducting state. The free carrier response and the collective modes exhibit a pronounced a–b anisotropy. We discuss our results in terms of a charge density wave state in the 1-D CuO chains and induced charge density fluctuations within the 2-D CuO₂ planes.     

Electronic structure of superconducting Cu oxides

On the basis of photoemission results on La_2-xSr_xCuO_4-y and YBa₂Cu₃O_y it is suggested that carriers doped in the otherwise insulating samples are oxygen p holes rather than Cu d holes. The p holes interact with the localized Cu d states through hybridization and may give rise to an anomaly near the Fermi surface as described by a periodic Anderson model with low carrier density.     

Valence states of copper atoms in cuprates determined from the change in the electron-capture constant of 64Cu

The change in the ⁶⁴Cu electron-capture constant for the compounds Cu₂O, YBa₂Cu₃O₇, YBa₂Cu₃O₆, Nd₂CuO₄, Nd_1.8Ce_0.2CuO₄, La₂CuO₄, La_1.7Sr_0.3CuO₄, Tl₂Ba₂CaCu₂O₈, and Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O₈ has been measured. It is concluded that the copper in YBa₂Cu₃O₇, Nd₂CuO₄, La₂CuO₄, La_1.7Sr_0.3CuO₄, Tl₂Ba₂CaCu₂O₈, and Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O₈ is exclusively divalent, whereas in Cu₂O, YBa₂Cu₃O₆, and Nd_1.8Ce_0.2CuO₄ univalent copper is present. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 1793–1794 (October 1998)     

Renormalization of phonon frequencies by conduction electrons in layer systems with application to YBa2Cu3O7

It is generally assumed that there are free electronic carriers associated with the CuO₂ planes in high-temperature superconductors. Regarding these carriers as confined to these planes their influence on phonon frequencies is studied within the framework of a shell model of lattice dynamics taking into account the long-range part of the electron-phonon coupling. We find a complete suppression of the LO-TO splitting for modes polarized along the planes by metallic screening and a strong coupling of electronic plasmon and particle-hole excitations especially to some To-phonon branches polarized perpendicular to the conducting planes, particularly pronounced in systems with at least two CuO₂ planes per unit cell. Numerical results are presented for YBa₂Cu₃O₇.     

Cell-by-cell mapping of carrier concentrations in high-temperature superconductors

The correlation between atomic and electronic structure in the vicinity of grain boundaries in YBa₂Cu₃O_7- is investigated on the scale of the coherence length, using a combination of Z-contrast imaging and electron energy loss spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscope. The detector arrangement of the microscope enables both techniques to be performed simultaneously, allowing the exact crystallographic location of the probe to be determined from the image. As the pre-edge feature of the oxygen K-absorption edge is very sensitive to the partial density of unoccupied states, it can be calibrated to give an accurate measure of local hole concentrations (±5%). Spatial resolution is limited only by the 2.2 Å probe size, thus allowing the electronic properties of the material to be inferred on a scale less than the coherence length. Results are discussed from the study of YBa₂Cu₃O_7- films prepared by laser ablation on yttria-stabilized-zirconia (YSZ) substrates, where a symmetric (near 5) grain boundary shows no significant hole depletion in the boundary region, while an asymmetric (near 17) boundary shows depletion extending over a region far greater than the atomic disorder shown in the image. Application of this technique to the study of interfaces in other superconducting systems is discussed.     

Zn局域替代YBa2Cu3O7中的Cu引起的电子结构变化

本文用Recursion方法研究Zn局域替代Ba₂Cu₃O₇中的Cu(2)引起的电子结构变化。研究表明,Zn的替代对替代晶位及其近邻的电子结构性质有重要影响。这些性质包括分波态密度、成键态的类别和强弱、晶位上原子的原子价等。计算结果的分析指出,Zn替代将导致电荷发生迁移,使CuO₂层层内的空穴减少。我们认为,电荷分布发生的这种变化是Zn低浓度替代时YBa₂Cu₃O_{7 关键词：}     

Cluster calculations of the hyperfine properties of copper compounds

Spin-polarized ab-initio cluster procedures are used to investigate the electronic structure of CuO₂-planes in the La₂CuO₄ and YBa₂Cu₃O₇ compounds. In particular, electric field gradients (EFGs) and magnetic hyperfine interaction parameters for the Cu sites were calculated with various theoretical methods. Calculations with density functional theory reproduce the experimentally determined EFGs fairly well while those at the Hartree-Fock level generally yield values which are too large by about 40%. The anisotropic magnetic hyperfine coupling can also be calculated with reasonable accuracy. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Identification of two-electron centers with a negative correlation energy in high-temperature superconductors

On the basis of comparison of experimental and calculated parameters of the electric field gradient tensor, it is shown that holes in the YBa₂Cu₃O₇ and YBa₂Cu₄O₈ lattices are localized on oxygen ions in the CuO₃ chains. These results agree with the model suggesting that the mechanism responsible for the high-temperature superconductivity in the YBa₂Cu₃O₇ and YBa₂Cu₄O₈ compounds is the interaction of electrons with two-atom two-electron copper centers with a negative correlation energy.     

Ca‐doped Ba2Cu3O7–δ bicrystal junctions fabricated on asymmetric SrTiO3 substrates

Bicrystal grain–boundary Josephson junctions of Ca–doped YBa₂Cu₃O_7–δ that is Y_0.7Ca_0.3Ba₂Cu₃O_7–δ were fabricated on three bicrystal SrTiO₃ (001) substrates with asymmetric 30°, 40° and 45° orientations. An enhancement of the critical current density in these Ca–doped junctions was observed when compared with normal YBCO grain–boundary junctions with similar angular orientations. The observed increase in the critical current density is large for the junctions fabricated on the asymmetric 30° bicrystal substrate and small or negligible, for those on the asymmetric 45° bicrystal substrate. The critical current was modulated by a magnetic field applied in the plane of the junctions. However, the Fraunhofer pattern observed due to the applied magnetic field deviates from the ideal one.     

Dielectric function of YBa2Cu3O7-δ between 50 meV and 50 eV

Electronic excitations with polarization parallel to the CuO₂-planes in single-crystalline YBa₂Cu₃O₇ and YBa₂Cu₃O₆ have been investigated by optical reflectance and by highenergy electron energy-loss spectroscopy in transmission in the energy ranges from 50 meV to 6 eV and 0.2 eV to 150 eV, respectively. From a combination of these experimental data the dielectric function, the reflectivity and the optical conductivity have been obtained in a wide energy range. The observed spectra are interpreted in terms of optical phonons, free-carrier absorption, transitions across the charge-transfer gap, further interband transitions, low-lying core-level excitations, excitonic transitions and valence conservingd-d transitions within the Cu 3d shell combined with O 2p intraband transitions. The charge carrier plasmon and the 4 eV-excitation in YBa₂Cu₃O₆ show quadratic dispersions in momentum transfer. From the dispersion constant of the plasmon a mean value of the Fermi velocity of the charge carriers parallel to the CuO₂ planes has been derived.     

Anomalies of the electronic spin-lattice relaxation of Gd3+ in YBa2Cu4O8 and YBa2Cu3O6+x near 200 K

A sharp kink in the temperature dependence of the electronic spin-lattice relaxation rate near 200 K was found in the high-temperature superconductors YBa₂Cu₄O₈ and YBa₂Cu₃O_6+x . The effect is correlated with opening of a spin gap and microscopic phase separation. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 8, 567–572 (25 April 1999)     

Positive muon sites and possibility of anyons in the YBa2Cu3O x system

Possible positive muon sites in YBa₂Cu₃O _x were determined from the observedμ ⁺ hyperfine fields in antiferromagnetically ordered YBa₂Cu₃O _x and GdBa₂Cu₃O₇. After determining theμ ⁺ sites, the possibility of anyons or chiral spin ordering in the superconducting YBa₂Cu₃O₇ is discussed. Positive muon implanted in YBa₂Cu₃O₇ feel static magnetic fields of average 1.4G, which are explicable in terms of nuclear magnetic dipolar fields. Non observation of static local magnetic fields of electronic origin (the upper limit is the order of 0.1 G) means that anyons or chiral spin ordering might not exist in superconducting YBa₂Cu₃O₇.     

X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopic Studies of High TeSuperconductors

The Cu-Lβ/Cu-Lα x-ray emission intensity ratio of the following compounds have been found to show an interesting consistency: Cu, Cu₂O, CuO, La_1.85Ba_.15CuO₄ (vacuum annealed), La_1.85Ba_.15CuO₄ (air annealed, T_C = 26K), La_1.85Sr_.15CuO₄ (T_C = 35K), YBa₂Cu₃O_7-Δ (T_C = 91K), ErBa₂Cu₃O_7-Δ (T_C = 81K), and La₂CuO₄. The interesting consistency is that all of the last six compounds, all superconductors or superconductor related, have the same Lβ/Lα intensity ratio, namely, 0.33±0.01. The Cu-Lα,β spectra of CuO, air and vacuum annealed La_1.85 Ba_.15CuO₄ and YBa₂Cu₃O_7-Δ are presented. Also presented are O-K x-ray fluorescence spectra of air and vacuum annealed La_1.85 Ba_.15CuO₄, and of “new” and “old” YBa₂Cu₃O_7-Δwhich seem to show a correspondence between spectral sharpness and high T_C behavior.     

Diffusion and surface energy barrier for labile oxygen in YBa2Cu3O7−δ

A study is made of the isotope exchange kinetics of tracer oxygen atoms between the gas phase and the CuO_1−δ plane in the YBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ crystal under isochronous and isothermal annealing. The parameters of the surface energy barrier for oxygen atoms are found. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 42–48 (January 1997)     

Site of the positive muon in YBa2Cu3O7

A combination of μSR and¹⁷O nuclear quadrupolar μLCR has been used to obtain detailed information on the muon site in YBa₂Cu₃O₇. The rms magnitude of the nuclear dipolar fields in YBa₂Cu₃O₇ enriched with 38%¹⁷O is about twice that in the natural¹⁶O sample. In addition the¹⁷O μLCR spectrum shows that the electric field gradient tensor at the oxygen closest to the muon is almost equal to that measured by NMR for the CuO₂ plane sites O(2,3). These results suggest that the muon in fully oxygenated YBa₂Cu₃O₇ is located at a single site 1.0 Å from an oxygen ion, probably O(2,3).     

High temperature study of yttrium--barium--copper oxides near the YBa2Cu3Ox composition by 111In/Cd time differential \gamma--\gamma perturbed angular correlation spectroscopy

The local atomic order around very dilute indium impurities in c-axis-oriented YBa₂Cu₃O₇ and YBa₂Cu₃O_6.25 films at room temperature and in YBa₂Cu₃O_x bulk powders held in air or oxygen over a wide temperature range were investigated using ¹¹¹In/Cd \gamma--\gamma perturbed angular correlation (PAC) spectroscopy. The probe atoms occupy a single substitutional lattice position in YBa₂Cu₃O_x, and evidence reported here strongly supports previous claims that this is the yttrium position. In YBa₂Cu₃O_x powders, the local atomic order changes continuously with temperature. At room temperature the electric field gradient measured by PAC in bulk YBa₂Cu₃O_x powder is indistinguishable from that in the fully oxygenated YBa₂Cu₃O₇ film. Near the decomposition temperature, the bulk YBa₂Cu₃O_x powder data are semiquantitatively similar to data in the room temperature YBa₂Cu₃O_6.25 film, with quantitative differences that we attribute to temperature averaging in the former. Other sites usually found in PAC spectra of YBa₂Cu₃O_x bulk samples arise from ¹¹¹In dissolved in Y₂BaCuO₅ and Y₂Cu₂O₅ impurity phases. The latter phase apparently arises because of significant barium loss during processing; the barium deficiency is clearly demonstrated by comparison of PAC data with the alloy phase diagram above the decomposition temperature. PAC data on pure Y₂Cu₂O₅ are reported here also. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Intergrain connectivity in YBa2Cu3O7-δ superconductor added with Dy2O3 nanoparticles: AC susceptibility investigation

YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (or YBCO) superconductors added with various concentrations of dysprosium oxide nanoparticles (NP-Dy₂O₃) were prepared using the solid-state process. The additive NP-Dy₂O₃ has a size of about 10 nm and presents a para/ferromagnetic transition at about 300 K. The characterization of samples was probed via XRD, TEM, SEM, DC magnetization, and AC susceptibility measurements. Some models were employed to compute superconducting parameters like intragranular critical current density under a magnetic field (J_cm(H)), the density of intragranular pinning force for Abrikosov vortex (ε_g(0)), intergranular critical current density (J_c,inter), intergranular electrical character, superconductor grain volume fraction (f_s). The correlation between these parameters and microstructure was discussed. The inclusion of NP-Dy₂O₃ does not alter the structural properties and the spatial growth of YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ. NP-Dy₂O₃ addition led to significant enhancements of J_cm(H) and ε_g(0). The decrement in J_c,inter was attributed to the change of grain boundary characteristics that transformed from SNS to SINS junction due to NP-Dy₂O₃ addition.