Quantitative HREM analysis of planar defects in high-pressure synthesized infinite-layer superconductor
Planar defects in the infinite-layer (Sr1-xCax)1-yCuO2 structure (planar CuO2 sheets separated by single Sr and Ca cations) have been suggested to be responsible for superconductivity with Tc up to about 110K. It is therefore important to understand the details of these defects at the atomic scale. In this work, we have used high resolution transmission electron microscopy to identify these defects and χ2 minimizations to best fit the experimental images; an optimized structure model from these studies is proposed.Thin samples of the infinite layer superconductor with the nominal chemical formula (Sr1-xCax)1-y CuO2 (x=0 and 0.3; y=0.9, 1.0 and 1.1) synthesized by high pressure treatment were prepared using a combination of mechanical polishing, dimpling and ion milling techniques. Through focal (10 nm steps) [100] HREM images of the defects (Fig. 1) were obtained on a 300kV Hitachi H-9000 microscope. HREM image simulations were carried out using NUMIS software and these were quantitatively compared against the experimental images using conventional χ2 minimizations with SEMPER software.