Pressure-induced structural changes in the superconductor (Nd1-xSrx (Nd1-yCey) CuO4-z. A neutron diffraction study

F. Izumi*, J. D. Jorgensen, P. Lightfoot, Shiyou Pei, Y. Yamada, E. Takayama-Muromachi, T. Matsumoto

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The crystal structure of (Nd0.59Sr0.41) (Nd0.73Ce0.27)CuO4-z (z≈0.4) was investigated by means of TOF neutron powder diffraction at six hydrostatic pressure up to 0.637 GPa with a He gas pressure cell. The superconducting transition temperature of this oxide has a positive pressure coefficient, dTc/dP, of 4.0 K GPa-1. As the pressure is increased, the a and c lattice parameters of its tetragonal cell both decrease linearly, which leads to a similar decrease in the length of a Cu-O (1) bond within a CuO2 sheet. Increasing pressure also decrease the distance Cu and axial O(2) atoms at a similar rate. Unfortunately, larger uncertainties for the Cu-O(2) bond length make a quantitative comparison difficult. It is clear, however, that no pronounced changes are observed in individual Cu-O bond lengths when compared with the overall cell compression. We conclude that an understanding of the pressure effect on Tc must be gained by considering pressure-induced changes in the overall structure rather than focussing attention on a single Cu-O bond.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)166-174
Number of pages9
JournalPhysica C: Superconductivity and its applications
Volume172
Issue number1-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 1990

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