Effects of Ca doping and O deficiency on the charge distribution in the vicinity of a 45° [001] grain boundary in YBa2Cu3O7

Abstract

The charge redistribution at grain boundaries is critical for the applicability of high-T c superconductors in electronic devices, because it determines the transport across the material. We investigate the charge transfer and the alterations of the electronic states due to local doping of a normal-state 45°-tilted [001] grain boundary in YBa 2Cu 3O 7 by means of first-principles calculations. Considering Ca doping and O deficiency as prototypical modifications we demonstrate that the redistribution of the charge carriers in the CuO 2 planes displays a very complex spatial pattern, which deviates even qualitatively from the naive expectation. Copyright © EPLA, 2012.