INFLUENCE OF OXYGEN UPON THE SUPERCONDUCTIVITY OF THE Pb-DOPED 2223 SUPERCONDUCTOR

The influences of oxygen content (by quenching from different temperatures in air or oxygen) and its re-distribution (by annealing in nitrogen at 200℃) on T_c and room temperature resistivity were studied. It was found that T_c as a function of oxygen content or charge carrier concentration exhibits a maximum. Upon oxygen re-distribution, the room temperature resistivity would always inclose but T_c would change in a complicated way. T_c increases for the oxygen-rich state and decreases for the oxygen-deficient state Internal friction measurements showed that there are two kinds of oxygen defects in the Bi₂-O₂ layers. One is the isolated oxygen interstitials and the other is oxygen vacancies on the excess oxygen chains. It is proposed that the isolated interstitial oxygen will produce a set of impurity states near the Fermi level, and will create holes on the Cu3d-O2p band through charge transfer from the Cu3d-O2p band to the impurity states. The content of the isolated oxygen interstitial is believed to be the major factor for determining the charge carrier concentration. Variation of T_c and room temperature resistivity with oxygen re-distribution is sat-isfactorily explained as to be induced by combination of oxygen interstitials with oxygen vacancies on the excess oxygen-chains.