Propriedades elétricas, estruturais e magnéticas de supercondutores hole-doped e electron-doped dos tipos YBa2Cu3O7-d, Pr2-XCeXCuO4-y e Sm2-XCeXCuO4-y

Abstract

The search for new methods to understand the mechanisms associated to superconductivity request novel experimental techniques, as well as materials with different characteristics. In this work, we report results obtained from electron-doped superconducting samples, of the form Ln2-xCexCuO4-y (where Ln = Pr and Sm). These materials are considered high-temperature superconductors (HTS) even for their low values of the critical temperature, TC, of the order of 25 K. These materials are of great interest since they show striking properties when compared to hole-doped materials, like YBCO. Some of these interesting properties observed in electron-doped superconductors are the apparent s-wave symmetry of the order parameter, and normal-state resistivity proportional to T2, while for hole-doped, the symmetry of the order parameter is d-wave and the normal-state resistivity is proportional to T. Therefore, in this work we have performed transport and magnetic experiments on Pr2-xCexCuO4-y (PCCO), Sm2- xCexCuO4-y (SCCO) and YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO) thin films samples. They were prepared by Prof. Dr. Fernando M. Araújo-Moreira using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique during his post-doc at Center for Superconductivity Research/CSR-University of Maryland in College Park/MD/USA. Their structure was characterized by using the x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with microanalysis (EDX-Energy Dispersive Analysis by X-ray). However, the magnetic characterization of those materials was the most important step of this work. To do that, we have built the experimental system to measure the magnetic penetration depth, ë, and the AC magnetic susceptibility, ÷. By determining the behavior of ë(T) is possible to know the symmetry of the order parameter associated to each material under investigation. The magnetic characterization of both materials was completed using a SQUID magnetometer to obtain the magnetic susceptibility data, ÷AC (T, hAC). Through these results we have obtained the average critical current density dependence with temperature, <Jc>, associated to the critical state model characteristic of each material. The experimental system, projected and constructed during this work, allows the simultaneous determination of both ë(T) and ÷(T).