Session P12: Superconducting Materials
11:15 AM–2:15 PM, Wednesday, March 23, 2005
LACC Room: 402A
Sponsoring Unit:
DCMP
Chair: Myron Salamon, University of Illinois
Abstract ID: BAPS.2005.MAR.P12.7
Abstract: P12.00007 : Superstructural lattice distortion within electron doped superconductor Pr$_{0.88}$LaCe$_{0.12}$CuO$_{4}$
12:27 PM–12:39 PM
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Abstract 
Authors:
Branton J. Campbell
(Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University)
Stephan Rosenkranz
Peter J. Chupas
(Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory)
Hye Jung Kang
Pengcheng Dai
(Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville)
Yasuaki Kurita
Seiki Komiya
Yoichi Ando
(Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry, Japan)
It is well-known that electron-doped Nd$_{0.85}$Ce$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4}$ can be reversibly converted between the superconductor and non-superconductor by appropriate high-temperature treatments in reducing or oxidizing environments, respectively. Samples that exhibit superconductivity also present a crystalline Nd$_{2}$O$_{3}$ (bixbyite structure) impurity phase as well as diffuse (0, 0, L) rods of scattering at superlattice positions in the (H, K, 0) plane that coincide with the reciprocal lattice of the larger 2$\surd $2 $\times $ 2$\surd $2 impurity cell. We present a diffuse scattering analysis of the rod scattering in related compound Pr$_{0.88}$LaCe$_{0.12}$CuO$_{4}$ (PLCCO) and demonstrate that they are evidence of a superstructural distortion of the CuO$_{2}$ sheets, rather than an impurity effect. This in-plane superstructure may prove to be a necessary condition for superconductivity in the electron-doped cuprates.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2005.MAR.P12.7