Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1991

Publication Title

Physical Review B

Abstract

Superconductivity only occurs in Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4- after heat treatment in a reducing at- mosphere; yet we find the oxygen loss during reduction to be remarkably small. To better understand the physical role of reduction, we have systematically varied the degree of reduction in a series of ceramic samples by varying the partial pressures of oxygen and argon in the reducing atmosphere, keeping the total pressure constant. We find that small increases in the degree of reduction strongly increase the apparent carrier density and the superconducting Meissner fraction. We also find that there is an optimal degree of reduction to produce a single-phase sample with a zero-resistance superconducting state. These results call into question many previous experiments performed on samples of Nd2-xCexCuO4- in which the effect of varying the degree of reduction was not systematically studied.

Volume

43

Issue

16

First Page

12930

Last Page

12934

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevB.43.12930

ISSN

01631829

Rights

© 1991 The American Physical Society.

Comments

Archived as published.

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