Structural changes of Bi1.8Sr2(Ca1-xYx)Cu2.2Oz ceramics with yttrium content studied by electron diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy.

Abstract

The mode of the incommensurate modulation in the {ital b} direction of the Bi{sub 1.8}Sr{sub 2}(Ca{sub 1{minus}{ital x}}Y{sub {ital x}})Cu{sub 2.2}O{sub {ital z}} (0.05{lt}{ital x}{lt}0.75) system is investigated by means of electron diffraction and high-resolution lattice imaging. The change of period of the long-period structure with {ital x} is found to be basically due to the mixing ratio of domains of two modulation periods with {ital b}=4.5{ital b}{sub 0} and 5{ital b}{sub 0} or 4.5{ital b}{sub 0} and 4{ital b}{sub 0}, thus creating periods of {ital b}=4.75{ital b}{sub 0--}4.0{ital b}{sub 0}. The fundamental orthorhombic lattice has dimensions of {ital a}{congruent}{ital b}{congruent}{ital b}{sub 0} (0.54 nm) and {ital c}{congruent}{ital c}{sub 0} (3.1 nm). The change of the mixing mode from one to the other mentioned above occurs just in the yttrium concentration range, 0.45{lt}{ital x}{lt}0.65, which also corresponds to the superconductor (metallic)-to-semiconductor transition boundary. The mixing modes of the domains are directly recorded as a contrast modulation with half periods, 4.5{ital b}{sub 0}/2 and 5{ital b}{sub 0}/2 or 4.5{ital b}{sub 0}/2 and 4{ital b}{sub 0}/2 in high-resolution lattice images. These images are reproduced well by a multislice computer-simulation technique.