Structure of the superconducting La2CuO4+ delta phases ( delta

TSFZ Growth of Eu-Substituted Large-Size LSCO Crystals

The travelling solvent floating zone (TSFZ) growth of Eu-substituted LSCO (La1.81−xEuxSr0.19CuO4, with nominal x = 0 ÷ 0.4) single crystals was systematically explored for the first time. The substitution of La with Eu considerably decreased the decomposition temperature. Optimal growth parameters were found to be: oxygen pressure 9.0–9.5 bars; Eu-free CuO-poor solvent (66 mol% CuO) with a molar ratio of La2O3:SrCO3:CuO = 4:4.5:16.5 and growth rate 0.6 mm/hour. The obtained single crystals were characterized with optical polarized microscopy, X-ray diffraction and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis. The solubility of Eu in LSCO appeared to be limited to x~0.36–0.38 under the used conditions. The substitution of La3+ with smaller Eu3+ ions led to a structural transition from tetragonal with space group I4/mmm for La1.81Sr0.19CuO4 (x = 0) to orthorhombic with space group Fmmm for La1.81−xSr0.19EuxCuO4 (x = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4), and to a substantial shrinking of the c-axis from 13.2446 Å (x = 0.0) to 13.1257 Å (x = 0.4). Such structural changes were accompanied by a dramatic decrease in the superconducting critical temperature, Tc, from 29.5 K for x = 0 to 13.8 K for 0.2. For x ≥ 0.3, no superconductivity was detected down to 4 K.

Low-temperature topotactic oxidation using the solid-state oxidant Zr-doped CeO2

A new topotactic oxidation was developed using the solid-state oxidant Zr-doped CeO₂. For the anti-ThCr₂Si₂ type Y₂O₂Bi, which became superconducting via oxygen intercalation during solid-state oxidation at 1000 °C, the topotactic oxidation enabled not only the oxygen intercalation at a much lower temperature of 200 °C, hampering the segregation of impurity phases, but also the highest superconducting transition temperature for Y₂O₂Bi.

Electrochemically activated solid synthesis: an alternative solid-state synthetic method

Solid-state synthesis is one of the most common synthetic methods in chemistry and is extensively used in lab-scale syntheses of advanced functional materials to ton-scale production of chemical compounds. It generally requires at least one or several high temperature and/or high-pressure steps, which makes production of compounds via solid-state methods very energy and time intensive. Consequently, there is a persistent economic and environmental incentive to identify less energy and time consuming synthetic pathways. Here, we present an alternative solid-state synthetic method, which utilizes structural changes, induced by an electrochemical "activation" step followed by a thermal treatment step. The method has been used to synthesize a Sc0.67WO4-type phase where Sc0.67WO4 has previously only been obtained at 1400 °C and 4 GPa for 1 h. Through our method the Sc0.67WO4-type phase has been prepared at only 600 °C and ambient pressure. Experimental factors that influence phase formation from the electrochemical perspective are detailed. Overall, the method presented in this work appears to be able to generate the conditions for unusual and new phases to form and thus becomes another tool for synthetic solid-state chemists. This in turn permits the exploration of a larger synthetic parameter space.

Electron Doping of the Parent Cuprate La_{2}CuO_{4} without Cation Substitution

In the cuprates, carrier doping of the Mott insulating parent state is necessary to realize superconductivity as well as a number of other exotic states involving charge or spin density waves. Cation substitution is the primary method for doping carriers into these compounds, and is the only known method for electron doping in these materials. Here, we report electron doping without cation substitution in epitaxially stabilized thin films of La_{2}CuO_{4} grown via molecular-beam epitaxy. We use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to directly measure their electronic structure and conclusively determine that these compounds are electron doped with a carrier concentration of 0.09±0.02 e^{-}/Cu. We propose that intrinsic defects, most likely oxygen vacancies, are the sources of doped electrons in these materials. Our results suggest a new approach to electron doping in the cuprates, one which could lead to a more detailed experimental understanding of their properties.

Oxygen Point Defect Chemistry in Ruddlesden-Popper Oxides (La1-xSrx)2MO4±δ (M = Co, Ni, Cu)

Stability of oxygen point defects in Ruddlesden-Popper oxides (La1-xSrx)2MO4±δ (M = Co, Ni, Cu) is studied with density functional theory calculations to determine their stable sites, charge states, and energetics as functions of Sr content (x), transition metal (M), and defect concentration (δ). We demonstrate that the dominant O point defects can change between oxide interstitials, peroxide interstitials, and vacancies. In general, increasing x and atomic number of M stabilizes peroxide over oxide interstitials as well as vacancies over both peroxide and oxide interstitials; increasing δ destabilizes both oxide interstitials and vacancies but barely affects peroxide interstitials. We also demonstrate that the O 2p-band center is a powerful descriptor for these materials and correlates linearly with the formation energy of all defects. The trends of formation energy versus x, M, and δ and the correlation with O 2p-band center are explained in terms of oxidation chemistry and electronic structure.

The flux dynamics behavior of the two competing high temperature superconducting phases in underdoped LaCuO4.06

In complex transition metal oxides (TMO) an arrested electronic phase separation (PS) appears by tuning the system near a Lifshitz transition in multiband Hubbard models. The PS in La2CuO4+y near insulator to metal transition (IMT) is made of short range Charge Density Wave (CDW) order inhomogeneity coexisting with quenched lattice disorder. While at high doping y = 0.1 percolation gives a single superconducting phase, near the IMT at y = 0.06 two coexisting superconducting phases appear: the first one with a critical temperature Tc1 = 16 K and the second one with Tc2 = 29 K. It is known that the two superconducting phases are characterized by two different space geometry because of two different spatial distributions of both CDW order and dopants self-organization. Here we show that these two phases show different flux dynamic regimes using alternating current (AC) multi-harmonic susceptibility experiments. This is a unique technique capable to investigate multi-phase superconductors and characterize their transport properties in a percolative scenario. Results point out that the low critical temperature phase is well described by a bulk-like flux pinning with a 2D geometry while the phase with higher critical temperature shows a 'barrier pinning' mechanism providing direct evidence of two different superconducting vortex dynamics in different complex geometrical spaces.

Optimum inhomogeneity of local lattice distortions in La2CuO(4+y)

Electronic functionalities in materials from silicon to transition metal oxides are, to a large extent, controlled by defects and their relative arrangement. Outstanding examples are the oxides of copper, where defect order is correlated with their high superconducting transition temperatures. The oxygen defect order can be highly inhomogeneous, even in optimal superconducting samples, which raises the question of the nature of the sample regions where the order does not exist but which nonetheless form the "glue" binding the ordered regions together. Here we use scanning X-ray microdiffraction (with a beam 300 nm in diameter) to show that for La(2)CuO(4+y), the glue regions contain incommensurate modulated local lattice distortions, whose spatial extent is most pronounced for the best superconducting samples. For an underdoped single crystal with mobile oxygen interstitials in the spacer La(2)O(2+y) layers intercalated between the CuO(2) layers, the incommensurate modulated local lattice distortions form droplets anticorrelated with the ordered oxygen interstitials, and whose spatial extent is most pronounced for the best superconducting samples. In this simplest of high temperature superconductors, there are therefore not one, but two networks of ordered defects which can be tuned to achieve optimal superconductivity. For a given stoichiometry, the highest transition temperature is obtained when both the ordered oxygen and lattice defects form fractal patterns, as opposed to appearing in isolated spots. We speculate that the relationship between material complexity and superconducting transition temperature T(c) is actually underpinned by a fundamental relation between T(c) and the distribution of ordered defect networks supported by the materials.

Defects in Divided Zinc−Copper Aluminate Spinels: Structural Features and Optical Absorption Properties

Zn1-xCuxAl2O4 (0 < or = x < 0.30) compounds have been synthesized by polyesterification using metallic salts and annealing at low temperatures as well as by conventional solid state. XRD-powder data refinements (Rietveld method) have demonstrated that both compound series crystallize in the spinel structure (Fd3m) and exhibit similar inversion rates. This low-temperature route lead to metastable phases with crystallite sizes around 40 nm whereas particle sizes are larger than 1 moicrom in the case of solid-state route. This preparative method largely described in the literature allows stabilizing reduced copper states thanks to the presence of reductive organic species, which are decomposed below T = 700 degrees C. The absorption spectra of the x = 0.15 composition exhibit strong differences depending on the synthesis route. These differences can be explained by the occurrence of Cu2+/Cu+ mixed valencies in compounds prepared by the low-temperature route; 33% of monovalent copper has been identified in the x = 0.15 composition prepared by low-temperature process, whereas the solid-state compound contains only divalent copper. Reductive properties of polyesterification reaction implying citric acid and low annealing temperature (T = 700 degrees C) are mainly responsible of the occurrence of the Cu2+/Cu+ mixed valencies. Actually, the annealing under air at T = 1000 degrees C of divided zinc-copper aluminates prepared at low temperatures (T = 700 degrees C) leads to the oxidation reaction Cu+ --> Cu2+ + e- confirmed by the evolution of magnetic measurements, ESR spectra, and optical absorption properties. Defects such as oxygen vacancies in the anionic network leading to reduction in the cations coordination number could also explain the strong evolution of optical absorption spectra especially around lambda = 700 nm where intervalencies transfer (Cu+/Cu2+) as well as intra-atomic d-d transitions (Cu2+ in a 5-fold coordination) can occur. Finally the occurrence of monovalent and divalent copper at the surface of such divided oxides, probably in tetrahedral sites, has been demonstrated by FTIR spectroscopy using the co-adsorption of CO and NO as probe molecules.

Oxygen Interstitials in Superconducting La2CuO4: Their Valence State and Role

The nature of the much debated valence state of an interstitial oxygen atom in oxygen-doped La2CuO4 is the subject of this paper. In model cluster calculations, we studied the position, charge, and spin state of the interstitial oxygen atoms in this superconductor. The models considered allow the interstitial oxygen to move off a symmetrical position, to have varying spin and charge, and to be surrounded by various magnetic environments. UB3LYP calculations show that a model having an interstitial oxygen atom with a total spin of 1 is lowest in energy; the interstitial oxygen atoms here act as stable radicals with a net charge of -1. These results agree with experimental evidence for the paramagnetic behavior for interstitial atoms. The energy associated with a spin flip at a Cu site in our models is lower if interstitial oxygen has a local electron spin density, compared to the case when it does not. We provide a possible explanation for the increase of the doping concentrations of interstitial oxygen with a decrease of the Néel temperature of this system. The relative stability of the models we consider depends on their spin states, accompanied by structural changes; this explains indirectly the experimental change of the slope (from 2 to 1.3) of the linear relationship between the hole concentration and the oxygen content. Our results support a stripe phase in high temperature superconductivity; in our calculations, hole doping to the copper oxide layer comes only through the formation of an oxygen interstitial pair, not from any change of the local structural environment and magnetic field around the single interstitial.

THE NEW GENERATION HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS

▪ Abstract  The layered perovskite cuprate materials are a unique class of superconductors with unusual normal-state and superconducting properties. The common physics to all these materials is that of the underlying CuO2 planes. This review provides a survey of and guide to their physical properties as it relates to the superconductivity of this interesting group of conducting oxides.

SOME CHEMICAL AND STRUCTURAL EFFECTS ON THE PROPERTIES OF HIGH-Tc SUPERCONDUCTORS

▪ Abstract  The history of superconductivity, including superconductivity in the high-Tc cuprates, is reviewed very briefly, and the differences between conventional superconductors and the high-Tc cuprates are summarized. The basic crystal structures of the major series of high-Tc cuprates are described and compared. The relation of structures to superconducting properties is reviewed with an emphasis on the orthorhombic-tetragonal transition in (La2−x Srx)CuO4; the corresponding transition, and also the transition to the low-temperature tetragonal phase in (La2−xBax)CuO4; and the effects of oxygen vacancies, oxygen-vacancy ordering, frozen-in disorder, and occupation of the off-chain O(5) sites in YBa2Cu3O7−δ. The effects of chemical substitutions of lanthanide elements on the La/Sr sites in (La2−xSrx)CuO4 and on the Y sites in YBa2Cu3O7−δ, and of 3d elements and sp elements on the Cu sites in both systems are reviewed. The difference between the effects of the lanthanide substitutions, particularly Pr, in the two systems are considered. Major properties of the Bi-, Tl-, and Hg-cuprates, are described briefly. A comparison of the high-Tc cuprates with noncuprate oxide superconductors is given.