A Reproducible Approach of Preparing High-Quality Overdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Single Crystals by Oxygen Annealing and Quenching Method**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11190022, 11334010 and 11534007, the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant No 2015CB921000, and the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant No XDB07020300.

Abstract

We report a reproducible approach in preparing high-quality overdoped Bi2Sr2 CaCu2 O8+δ (Bi2212) single crystals by annealing Bi2212 crystals in high oxygen pressure followed by a fast quenching. In this way, high-quality overdoped and heavily overdoped Bi2212 single crystals are obtained by controlling the annealing oxygen pressure. We find that, beyond a limit of oxygen pressure that can achieve most heavily overdoped Bi2212 with a Tc ∼63 K, the annealed Bi2212 begins to decompose. This accounts for the existence of the hole-doping limit and thus the Tc limit in the heavily overdoped region of Bi2212 by the oxygen annealing process. These results provide a reliable way in preparing high-quality overdoped and heavily overdoped Bi2212 crystals that are important for studies of the physical properties, electronic structure and superconductivity mechanism of the cuprate superconductors.