TEM investigation of YBa2Cu3O7 thin films on SrTiO3 bicrystals

YBa2Cu3O7 films in c-axis orientation on bicrystalline SrTiO3 substrates are investigated by TEM. The films and the substrates are examined in cross-section and in plane view. The grain boundary of the bicrystal substrate contains (110) faceted voids, but is otherwise straight on a nanometer scale. Contrary to this, the film grain boundary is not straight grain boundary can be up to 100 nm for a 100 nm thick film. The deviation from the intended position of the YBCO grain boundary can already occur at the film/substrate interface where it can be as much as ±50 nm

Electrical resistivity of PrBa2Cu3-xGaxO7-y (001) and (105) oriented thin films

In the past almost all studies on the anisotropy of the transport properties in 1-2-3 materials were performed on single crystals. This study is focused particularly on the anisotropy of the specific resistivity p as measured on almost single domain thin films of PrBa2Cu3-xGaxO7-y. Gallium doped PrBa2Cu3O7-y was deposited on (305) SrTiO3 to obtain (105) oriented, almost single domain thin films [1]. The films are deposited by rf magnetron sputtering in a one-step process, at low deposition rate. A relatively simple route for the preparation of single-phase gallium doped PrBa2Cu3O7-y target material by a citrate synthesis and pyrolysis [2] is presented

Microstructures of ramp-edge YBa2Cu3Ox/PrBa2Cu3Ox/YBa2Cu3Ox Josephson junctions on different substrates

Ramp-edge YBa2Cu3/PrBa2Cu3Ox/YBa2Cu3Ox Josephson junctions with PrBa2Cu3Ox (PrBCO) or SrTiO3 as a separating layer on different kinds of substrate have been studied by high-resolution electron microscopy. The bottom YBa2Cu3Ox (YBCO) layer and the separating layer (PrBCO or SrTiO3) were epitaxially c oriented, irrespective of the substrate (yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), SrTiO3 or NdGaO3, all in (001) orientation). The use of ion milling in the manufacturing of Josephson junctions was found to yield smooth slopes with an angle of about 20°. The Josephson junction was facing away from the beam direction was found to have a dimple in the substrate near the base of the junction. The barrier layers were observed to have a homogeneous thickness. These layers were as the top YBCO layers were oriented with their c-axis perpendicular to (001) plane of the substrate for perovskite substrates and perpendicular to the surface for YSZ substrates. In the case of a YSZ substrate, the dimple in the substrate as well as the slope of the substrate close to the base of the junction were found to lead to small angle grain boundaries in the YBCO film as well as randomly oriented YBCO grains, which results in a poor ramp-edge junction. In the case of SrTiO3 or NdGaO3 substrate, all components of the device were fully epitaxial, thus resulting in good ramp-edge junctions

On the relation between adjacent inviscid cell type solutions to the rotating-disk equations

Over a large range of the axial coordinate a typical higher-branch solution of the rotating-disk equations consists of a chain of inviscid cells separated from each other by viscous interlayers. In this paper the leading-order relation between two adjacent cells will be established by matched asymptotic expansions for general values of the parameter appearing in the equations. It is found that the relation between the solutions in the two cells crucially depends on the behaviour of the tangential velocity in the viscous interlayer. The results of the theory are compared with accurate numerical solutions and good agreement is obtained

Coupling between electronic and structural degrees of freedom in the triangular lattice conductor NaxCoO2

The determination by powder neutron diffraction of the ambient temperature crystal structures of compounds in the NaxCoO2 family, for 0.3 < x <= 1.0, is reported. The structures consist of triangular CoO2 layers with Na ions distributed in intervening charge reservoir layers. The shapes of the CoO6 octahedra that make up the CoO2 layers are found to be critically dependent on the electron count and on the distribution of the Na ions in the intervening layers, where two types of Na sites are available. Correlation of the shapes of cobalt-oxygen octahedra, the Na ion positions, and the electronic phase diagram in NaxCoO2 is made, showing how structural and electronic degrees of freedom can be coupled in electrically conducting triangular lattice systems.Comment: 15 pages, 1 tables, 6 figures Submitted to Physical Review

Phase-transitions in spin-crossover thin films probed by graphene transport measurements

Future multi-functional hybrid devices might combine switchable molecules and 2D material-based devices. Spin-crossover compounds are of particular interest in this context since they exhibit bistability and memory effects at room temperature while responding to numerous external stimuli. Atomically-thin 2D materials such as graphene attract a lot of attention for their fascinating electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, but also for their reliability for room-temperature operations. Here, we demonstrate that thermally-induced spin-state switching of spin-crossover nanoparticle thin films can be monitored through the electrical transport properties of graphene lying underneath the films. Model calculations indicate that the charge carrier scattering mechanism in graphene is sensitive to the spin-state dependence of the relative dielectric constants of the spin-crossover nanoparticles. This graphene sensor approach can be applied to a wide class of (molecular) systems with tunable electronic polarizabilities.Comment: main text: 13 pages, 5 figures ; SI: 14 pages, 12 figure

Superconductivity in Mg10Ir19B16

Mg10Ir19B16, a previously unreported compound in the Mg-Ir-B chemical system, is found to be superconducting at temperatures near 5 K. The fact that the compound exhibits a range of superconducting temperatures between 4 and 5 K suggests that a range of stoichiometries is allowed, though no structural evidence for this is observed. The compound has a large, noncentrosymmetric, body centered cubic unit cell with a = 10.568 Angstrom, displaying a structure type for which no previous superconductors have been reported.Comment: submitted to PR