STRUCTURE AND CRYSTAL-CHEMISTRY OF THE HIGH-TC SUPERCONDUCTOR YBA2CU3O7-X
STRUCTURE AND CRYSTAL-CHEMISTRY OF THE HIGH-TC SUPERCONDUCTOR YBA2CU3O7-X
复制标题
DOI:
10.1038/327310a0
复制
发表时间:
1987-05-28
期刊:
影响因子:
64.8
通讯作者:
GRACE, JD
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
DAVID, WIF;HARRISON, WTA;GRACE, JD
Materials within the phase diagram Y2O3–BaO–CuO have recently generated great interest because of the observation of superconductivity with a critical temperature (Tc) of ≳90 K1,2; the current consensus is that YBa2Cu3O7−x(x≈ 0.2) is the superconducting phase (see, for example ref. 3). Hazenet al.4concluded, from a single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiment, that its structure is based on the corner-linked octahedral perovskite structure: the tetragonal unit cell (space groupP&4bar;m2) arises from a tripling of the c-axis resulting from the ordering of yttrium and barium cations and associated oxygen defects. Here we present high-resolution neutron powder diffraction data for this phase withx= 0.15(7). Our results agree with ref. 4 with respect to cation positions, but the location of one set of oxygen defects is substantially different and necessitates the lowering of lattice symmetry from tetragonal to orthorhombic (space groupPmmm), in agreement with separate findings5–8. In contrast to the 35-K superconductor, La1.85Ba0.15CuO4, the corner-linked CuO4planar groups are connected not only as sheets in thea–bplane but also as chains parallel to the ft-axis. The average copper valence is 2.23 (5). From bond valence arguments we infer that the Cu2+and Cu3+ions preferentially occupy square pyramidal and square planar sites respectively. Crystal chemical considerations suggest that these structural features may be involved in the superconducting mechanism.