Rx. Liang et al., Preparation and X-ray characterization of highly ordered ortho-II phase YBa2Cu3O6.50 single crystals, PHYSICA C, 336(1-2), 2000, pp. 57-62
High purity, highly ordered and twin free ortho-II phase YBa2Cu3O6.50 cryst
als have been successfully prepared and their structural properties charact
erized by X-ray diffraction. Removal of twin boundaries was found to be ess
ential in order to obtain highly ordered ortho-II crystals. The ortho-II ph
ase shows a sharp superconducting transition at T-c = 62 K, 5 K higher than
the ortho-I phase of the same oxygen content. The ordering was found to be
three-dimensional with long correlation lengths xi(a) = 148 Angstrom, xi(b
) = 430 Angstrom and xi(c) = 58 Angstrom. No doubling of the unit lattice a
long the c-direction was observed, indicating an attractive interaction bet
ween oxygen ions in adjacent basal planes. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. A
ll rights reserved.