YBaCuO superconductor single crystals

Patent Pending The first superconductor found with Tc > 77 K (liquid nitrogen boiling point) is yttrium barium copper oxide (YBa2Cu3O7-x); the proportions of the three different metals in the YBa2Cu3O7 superconductor are in the mole ratio of 1 to 2 to 3 for yttrium to barium to copper, respectively. Thus, this particular superconductor is often referred to as the 123 superconductor. The unit cell of YBa2Cu3O7 consists of three pseudocubic elementary perovskite unit cells. Each perovskite unit cell contains a Y or Ba atom at the center: Ba in the bottom unit cell, Y in the middle one, and Ba in the top unit cell. Thus, Y and Ba are stacked in the sequence [Ba–Y–Ba] along the c-axis. All corner sites of the unit cell are occupied by Cu, which has two different coordinations, Cu(1) and Cu(2), with respect to oxygen. There are four possible crystallographic sites for oxygen: O(1), O(2), O(3) and O(4).