While it is known that the nature and the arrangement of defects in complex oxides have an impact on the material functionalities little is known on control of superconductivity by oxygen interstitial organization in cuprates. Here we report direct c
ompelling evidence for the control of Tc, by manipulation of the superconducting granular networks of nanoscale puddles, made of ordered oxygen stripes, in a single crystal of YBa2Cu3O6.5+y with average formal hole doping p close to 1/8. Upon thermal treatments we were able to switch from a first network of oxygen defects striped puddles with OVIII modulation (qOVIII(a*)=(h+3/8,k,0) and qOVIII(a*)=(h+5/8,k,0)), to second network characterized by OXVI modulation (qOXVI(a*)=(h+7/16,k,0) and qOXVI(a*)=(h+9/16,k,0)), and finally to a third network with puddles of OV periodicity (qOV(a*)=(4/10,1,0) and qOV(a*)=(6/10,1,0)). We map the microscopic spatial evolution of the out of plane OVIII, OXVI and OV puddles nano-size distribution via scanning micro-diffraction measurements. In particular, we calculated the number of oxygen chains (n) and the charge density (holes concentration p) inside each puddle, analyzing areas of 160x80 {mu}m2, and recording 12800 diffraction patterns to reconstruct each spatial map. The high spatial inhomogeneity shown by all the reconstructed spatial maps reflects the intrinsic granular structure that characterizes cuprates and iron-chalcogenides, disclosing the presence of several complex networks of coexisting superconducting domains with different lattice modulations, charge density and different gaps like in the proposed multi-gaps scenario called superstripes.
Despite intensive research a physical explanation of high Tc superconductors remains elusive. One reason for this is that these materials have generally a very complex structure making useless theoretical models for a homogeneous system. Little is kn
own on the control of the critical temperature by the space disposition of defects because of lack of suitable experimental probes. X-ray diffraction and neutron scattering experiments used to investigate y oxygen dopants in YBa2Cu3O 6+y lack of spatial resolution. Here we report the spatial imaging of dopants distribution in-homogeneity in YBa2Cu3O6.67 using scanning nano X-ray diffraction. By changing the X-ray beam size from 1 micron to 300 nm of diameter, the lattice inhomogeneity increases. The ordered oxygen puddles size distribution vary between 6-8 nm using 1x1 {mu}m2 beam, while it is between 5-12 nm with a fat tail using the 300x300 nm2 beam. The increased inhomogeneity at the nanoscale points toward an intrinsic granular complexity.
The local structure in high temperature superconductors is nowadays considered a key point for understanding superconductivity mechanism. MgB2 has a well-known simple structure; but its local structure remains quite unexplored. This is due to the fac
t that typical x-ray local probes, such as EXAFS, fail when used to study local structure of light atoms, such as Mg and B. We used high resolution neutron diffraction with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis for investigating disorder on the atomic scale in the Al doped Mg1-xAlxB2 system. The results indicate an anisotropic structural inhomogeneity along the c-axis that could be related with the delocalized metallic-type bonding between Boron layers.
