Influence of oxygen stoichiometry on the structure and superconducting transition temperature of YBa 2Cu 3O x

Abstract

A detailed study of the superconducting properties and the crystal symmetry of YBa 2Cu 3O x as a function of oxygen content (x) is presented. We correlate the oxygen content, structure and superconducting transition temperature for YBa 2Cu 3O x (6<×<7) series of materials formed by the topotactic intercalation/deintercalation of oxygen. It is shown that the orthorhombic to tetragonal phase transition coincides with a loss in superconductivity for samples prepared both by quenching from high temperature and samples prepared by deoxygenation at low temperature. For the orthorhombic phase, T c monotonically decreases as x goes from 7.0 to 6.4 along with a complementary decrease in the extent of orthorhombic distortion. The decrease in T c, however, is not uniform. For quenched samples it shows a plateau for x ∼ 6.75 to 6.55 and then a rather abrupt drop around x ∼ 6.5. Comparison of our data with the literature indicates that the dependence of superconducting properties and crystal structure on the oxygen content can be a complex function of sample processing history. Samples with the same oxygen content but prepared in different ways may have x-ray powder patterns that are indistinguishable, but significantly different electrical properties.