The La (Ba2-xLax)Cu3- yOz single crystals : structures and conductivity

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Abstract
The crystal structure of the orthorhombic and tetragonal phases of La(Ba 2-xLax)Cu3-yO 6+x/2-y+ z are determined on twinned crystals. The orthorhombic structure, obtained for low x, is close to the regular Y-Ba-Cu-O type (twin a * b * c-b * a * c), but is highly copper deficient on the Cu(1) site (~ 30 %). The local correlations (ξ ~ 20 Å) between copper atoms and vacancies, as deduced from X-ray diffuse scattering, correspond to a short-range segregation of vacancies in chains. As a consequence of the large amount of defects, these crystals are non-typical semiconductors. The tetragonal structure, x ≃ 0.50, leads to tri-twinned crystals with 90° faulting, a * a * 3 a-a * 3 a * a -3 a * a * a (a, the perovskite lattice constant). In these materials the copper sites are found to be strongly anharmonic. This is due to the disorder introduced by the La-Ba substitution. These crystals are also semiconductors with a T-1/4 activation law for the conductivity which indicates that variable range hopping is expected to set in, a consequence of localization by the disorder