Tuning High-Tc Superconductors via Multistage Intercalation

doi:10.1126/science.254.5037.1487

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Science 6 December 1991:
Vol. 254. no. 5037, pp. 1487 - 1489
DOI: 10.1126/science.254.5037.1487

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Tuning High-T_c Superconductors via Multistage Intercalation

X. -D. XIANG ¹, W. A. VAREKA ¹, A. ZETTL ¹, J. L. CORKILL ¹, T. W. BARBEE III ¹, MARVIN L. COHEN ¹, N. KIJIMA ², and R. GRONSKY ²

¹ Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, and Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
² Department of Materials Science and Mineral Engineering, University of California, and National Center for Electron Microscopy, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720

Multistage intercalation has been used to tune the interactionbetween adjacent blocks of CuO₂ sheets in the bigh-T_c (highsuperconducting transition temperature) superconductor Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_x.As revealed by atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopyimages, foreign iodine atoms are intercalated into every nthBiO bilayer of the host crystal, resulting in structures ofstoichiometry IBi_2nSr_2nCa_nCu_2nO_x with stage index n up to 4.An expansion of 3.6 angstroms for each intercalated BiO bilayerdecouples the CuO₂ sheets in adjacent blocks. A comparison ofthe superconducting transition temperatures of the pristinehost material and intercalated compounds of different stagessuggests that the coupling between each pair of adjacent blockscontributes $sim$ 5 K to T_c in Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_x.

Submitted on September 10, 1991
Accepted on October 4, 1991

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