Crystal Growth and Neutron Scattering Study on High Tc Superconductors La_{1.6-x}Nd_{0.4}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}

Abstract

Superconductivity has been a topical dicovery of materials research and condensed matter physics since its discovery in 1911. It has seen applications appear within cutting edge technology, yet the mechanism for this exotic quantum phenomena remains unclear. This thesis is centred on the preliminary study on one family of the cuprate high Tc superconductors, the La1.6−xNd0.4SrxCuO4 (Nd-LSCO) system. We were able to synthesize single phase polycrystalline material of Nd-LSCO across its phase diagram from x 0.02 to x 0.4. We were also able to grown three large, high quality single crystal samples of this system at high doping, for the first time. Large single crystals of La1.6−xNd0.4SrxCuO4 (x=0.17, 0.19 and 0.24) were successfully grown using the traveling solvent floating zone technique. This thesis focuses on an introduction to the relevant materials preparation and crystal growth techniques and a discussion of some of the characterization of the samples which necessarily is involved in such a systematic study.