Attenuation of superconductivity in manganite/cuprate heterostructures by epitaxially-induced CuO intergrowths

作者：Zhang H^*; Gauquelin N; Botton G A; Wei J Y T

来源：Applied Physics Letters, 2013, 103(5): 052606.

DOI：10.1063/1.4813840

We examine the effect of CuO intergrowths on the superconductivity in epitaxial La2/3Ca1/3MnO3/YBa2Cu3O7-delta (LCMO/YBCO) thin-film heterostructures. Scanning transmission electron microscopy on bilayer LCMO/YBCO thin films revealed double CuO-chain intergrowths which form regions with the 247 lattice structure in the YBCO layer. These nanoscale 247 regions do not appear in x-ray diffraction, but can physically account for the reduced critical temperature (T-c) of bilayer thin films relative to unilayer films with the same YBCO thickness, at least down to similar to 25 nm. We attribute the CuO intergrowths to the bilayer heteroepitaxial mismatch and the T-c reduction to the generally lower T-c seen in bulk 247 samples. These epitaxially-induced CuO intergrowths provide a microstructural mechanism for the attenuation of superconductivity in LCMO/YBCO heterostructures.

• 出版日期2013-7-29