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Specific heat of GdBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-//sub delta/ in the normal and superconducting states

Journal Article · · Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter; (United States)
The specific heat c, resistance R, and magnetic susceptibility chi of the high-temperature superconductor GdBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-//sub delta/ have been measured from 1.5 to 180 K and compared with those of YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-//sub delta/ and La/sub 1.85/Ba/sub 0.15/CuO/sub 4/. For the Gd compound, an antiferromagnetic transition is seen in the specific-heat data at 2.24 K, and a Curie-Weiss dependence of chi is also seen, with 7.98 Bohr magnetons per Gd ion and 1/chi extrapolating to zero at -5.89 K. The entropy associated with this peak in the specific heat is consistent with an assignment of J = 7/2 to the total angular-momentum quantum number of the Gd ion, indicating that crystal-field effects are small. The specific heat of the Gd compound is larger than that of the Y compound at these temperatures; this is attributed to the larger mass of the Gd ion. A peak in c/T/sup 3/ near 20 K in the Gd compound indicates a sharply defined peak in the phonon density of states near 10 meV. The superconducting transition temperature T/sub c/ of GdBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-//sub delta/ indicated by the specific-heat data is 93.8 K, and the jump in the specific heat at T/sub c/ is 301 mJ/K g-atom, in agreement with previous observations for YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-//sub delta/. Evidence is seen for a temperature-dependent phonon density of states in GdBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-//sub delta/, and it is pointed out that such a temperature dependence is also seen in previously published data for La/sub 1.85/Ba/sub -0.15/CuO/sub 4/ and La/sub 1.8/Sr/sub 0.2/CuO/sub 4/.
Research Organization:
Department of Physics and Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801
OSTI ID:
5798291
Journal Information:
Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter; (United States) Vol. 36:13; ISSN PRBMD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English