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 1353691

Subject Categories

Materials Chemistry

Other Physics Topics

Condensed Matter Physics

DOI

10.1016/j.physc.2020.1353691

More information

Latest update

7/1/2021 1