SCALING BETWEEN LOCALIZATION LENGTH AND TC IN DISORDERED YBa2Cu3O6.9

Abstract

We quantitatively study the effect of growth-induced reduction of long range structural order on the superconducting transition in epitaxial YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6.9 films. The corresponding reduction of structural coherence length rc is determined from the width of X-ray diffraction rocking curves. Tc measurements in the films give evidence for the validity of the empirical scaling relation ΔTc~ rc,ab-2, where ΔTc is the disorder-induced reduction of Tc and rc,ab is the structural coherence length in the ab-plane. To explain this algebraic law we propose a simple phenomenological model based on the disorder-induced localization of the charge carriers within each ordered domain of size rc,ab. This picture enables us to precisely determine the Ginzburg-Landau superconducting coherence length in the ab-plane, and we obtain ξab=1.41±0.04 nm.