First-Principles Calculations of Electronic States and Self-Doping Effects at a 45° Grain Boundary in the High Temperature YBa2Cu3O7 Superconductor

Schwingenschlögl, Udo; Schuster, Cosima

First-Principles Calculations of Electronic States and Self-Doping Effects at a 45° Grain Boundary in the High Temperature YBa2Cu3O7 Superconductor

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First-Principles Calculations of Electronic States and Self-Doping Effects at a 45° Grain Boundary in the High Temperature YBa2Cu3O7 Superconductor.pdf (456.41 KB)

Type

Article

Authors

Schwingenschlögl, Udo

Schuster, Cosima

KAUST Department

Computational Physics and Materials Science (CPMS)
Material Science and Engineering Program
Office of the VP
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division

Preprint Posting Date

2009-05-04

Date

2009-06-03

Abstract

The charge redistribution at grain boundaries determines the applicability of high-Tc superconductors in electronic devices because the transport across the grains can be hindered considerably. We investigate the local charge transfer and the modification of the electronic states in the vicinity of the grain-grain interface by ab initio calculations for a (normal-state) 45°-tilted [001] grain boundary in YBa2Cu3O7. Our results explain the suppressed interface transport and the influence of grain boundary doping in a quantitative manner, in accordance with the experimental situation. The charge redistribution is found to be strongly inhomogeneous, which has a substantial effect on transport properties since it gives rise to a self-doping of 0.10±0.02 holes per Cu atom.

Citation

Schwingenschlögl U, Schuster C (2009) First-Principles Calculations of Electronic States and Self-Doping Effects at a 45° Grain Boundary in the High Temperature YBa2Cu3O7 Superconductor. Physical Review Letters 102. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.227002.