Non-destructive characterisation of dopant spatial distribution in cuprate superconductors
Journal article, 2020
Proper characterisation of investigated samples is vital when studying superconductivity as impurities and doping inhomogeneities can affect the physical properties of the measured system. We present a method where a polarised neutron imaging setup utilises the precession of spin-polarised neutrons in the presence of a trapped field in the superconducting sample to spatially map out the critical temperature for the phase transition between superconducting and non-superconducting states. We demonstrate this method on a superconducting crystal of the prototypical high-temperature superconductor (La,Sr)2CuO4. The results, which are backed up by complementary magnetic susceptibility measurements, show that the method is able to resolve minor variations in the transition temperature across the length of the LSCO crystal, caused by inhomogeneities in strontium doping.
Cuprates
Spatial doping distribution
Superconductivity
Polarised neutron imaging
Author
A. E. Ţuţueanu
Niels Bohr Institute
Institut Laue-Langevin
M. Sales
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
K. L. Eliasen
Roskilde University (RUC)
M. E. Lǎcǎtuşu
Niels Bohr Institute
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
J. C. Grivel
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
N. Kardjilov
Helmholtz
I. Manke
Helmholtz
M. Krzyzagorski
Helmholtz
Yasmine Sassa
Chalmers, Physics, Materials Physics
Martin Andersson
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry
Uppsala University
S. Schmidt
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
K. Lefmann
Niels Bohr Institute
Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications
0921-4534 (ISSN)
Vol. 575 1353691Subject Categories
Materials Chemistry
Other Physics Topics
Condensed Matter Physics
DOI
10.1016/j.physc.2020.1353691