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Cation effects in doped La2CuO4 superconductors

Nature volume 394, pages 157–159 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

The critical temperatures of (Ln1−xMx)2CuO4 superconductors1, in which Ln3+ (La and other lanthanides) and M2+ (Ca, Sr, Ba) cations are randomly distributed amongst the ‘type A’ lattice sites, are known to depend on the doping level, x, and the mean A-site cation radius, 〈rA〉 (refs 2, 3). Here we show, by studying series of compositions with the same doping level and 〈rA〉, that the critical temperature decreases linearly with increasing A-site disorder, as quantified by the variance in the distribution of A-site cation radii. From this, we are able to show that, in the absence of disorder, the critical temperature should increase quadratically with 〈rA〉 for superconductors containing a single CuO2 layer. Our results therefore show that the critical temperature is very sensitive to lattice strains, as has also been shown for the metal to insulator transition temperature in the magnetoresistive (Ln1−xMx)MnO3 perovskites4.

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Figure 1
Figure 2: Variation of Tc with A-cation size variance σ2 for three series of (Ln0.925M0.075)2CuO4 samples.
Figure 3

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Acknowledgements

We thank H. Fuess for access to thermogravimetric equipment at Technische Universitat Darmstadt, and the British Council for an ARC grant.

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Author notes

  1. A. L. Kharlanov and J. A. McAllister: These authors contributed equally to the work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Superconductivity, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, CB3 OHE, Cambridge, UK

    J. P. Attfield

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, CB2 1EW, Cambridge, UK

    J. P. Attfield

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  1. J. P. Attfield
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  2. A. L. Kharlanov
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  3. J. A. McAllister
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Correspondence to J. P. Attfield.

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Attfield, J., Kharlanov, A. & McAllister, J. Cation effects in doped La2CuO4 superconductors. Nature 394, 157–159 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/28120

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