Scanning micro-x-ray diffraction unveils the distribution of oxygen chain nanoscale puddles in YBa2Cu3O6.33

Gaetano Campi, Alessandro Ricci, Nicola Poccia, Luisa Barba, Gianmichele Arrighetti, Manfred Burghammer, Alessandra Stella Caporale, and Antonio Bianconi
Phys. Rev. B 87, 014517 – Published 30 January 2013

Abstract

Oxygen chain fragments are known to appear at the insulator-to-superconductor transition in YBa2Cu3O6+y. However, the self-organization and the size distribution of oxygen chain fragments are not known. Here, we seek to fill this gap, using scanning micro-x-ray diffraction, which is an imaging method based on advances in focusing a synchrotron radiation beam. This approach allows us to probe both real-space and k-space of high-quality YBa2Cu3O6.33 single crystals with Tc = 7 K. We report compelling evidence for nanoscale striped puddles, with Ortho-II structure, made of chain fragments in the basal Cu(1) plane with local oxygen concentration y ≥ 0.5. The size of the Ortho-II puddles spans a range between 2 and 9 nm. The real-space imaging of Ortho-II puddles granular network shows that superconductivity, at a low hole-doping regime, occurs in a network of nanoscale oxygen ordered patches, interspersed with oxygen depleted regions. The manipulation by thermal treatments of the striped Ortho-II puddles has been investigated focusing on the spontaneous symmetry breaking near the order-to-disorder phase transition at T0 = 350 K.

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  • Received 29 November 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.014517

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Gaetano Campi1, Alessandro Ricci2, Nicola Poccia3, Luisa Barba4, Gianmichele Arrighetti4, Manfred Burghammer5, Alessandra Stella Caporale6, and Antonio Bianconi1,6,7

  • 1Institute of Crystallography, CNR, via Salaria Km 29.300, Monterotondo Roma, 00015, Italy
  • 2Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany
  • 3MESA + Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P. O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede, Netherlands
  • 4Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste. Strada Statale 14 - km 163, 5, AREA Science Park, 34149 Basovizza, Trieste, Italy
  • 5European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, B. P. 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France
  • 6RICMASS Rome International Center for Materials Science Superstripes, via dei Sabelli 119A, 00185 Roma, Italy
  • 7Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy

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Issue

Vol. 87, Iss. 1 — 1 January 2013

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