Chemistry and Physics Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

A Search for Signatures of Superconductivity: Study of Rare Earth Oxides

Event Name/Location

11th International Conference on Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity, Geneva, Switzerland, August 23-28, 2015

Presentation Date

8-2015

Document Type

Poster

ORCID ID

0000-0001-7825-8667

Description

A search for new high-temperature superconductors was inspired by a general valence pairing approach (e.g., M±2 and M±4) to target layered structures. This approach has led to polycrystalline mixtures that exhibit interesting features in Magnetic Field Modulated Microwave Spectra, which can be used to selectively detect superconducting transitions with high sensitivity. As a result, binary rare earth (RE) oxides (e.g., RE M O3, RE2 M O4) with phase-purity were targeted for property analysis. The binary RE M Ox compounds containing RE2+,3+ and M3+,4+ were synthesized using conventional solid-state reactions in which pelletized RE2O3 and M2O3 were heated to 1200-1500°C in an atmosphere of flowing ultra-pure argon. The structures and phase-purity of the bulk materials were analyzed via Rietveld refinement using X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) data. Signatures of superconductivity were explored using Magnetic Field Modulated Microwave Spectroscopy (MFMMS) in conjunction with zero-field cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM).

Share

COinS