Microstructures of La 1.85Sr 0.15CuO 4 doped with Ni at high doping level

Abstract

Ceramic superconductors of La 1.85Sr 0.15Cu 1− y Ni y O 4 with 0.00 ≤ y ≤ 0.50 were synthesized. There is no impurity phase detected in the entire Ni doped region. The structure of these Ni-doped samples was characterized by X-ray diffraction studies. The atomic structural parameters were obtained by Rietveld refinements for the Ni-doped samples with y ≤ 0.50. Some meaningful bond distances were determined according to the refined results. According to the variations of some bond distances with y, the whole doping range could be divided into two regions: low doping level (LDL) and high doping level (HDL). The bond length between the two apical oxygen atoms in the CuO 6 octahedra for the Ni-doped samples increased with increasing content of Ni in the LDL, and decreased in the HDL. The average bond distance of LaO was not changed in the whole doping region. The metal-insulator transition was also observed in this Ni-doped system.