First Principles Calculation of Oxygen Ordering in YBa2Cu3O7-y

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe have performed a number of first principles electronic structure calculations for YBa 2Cu 3O7_y with different oxygen orderings and concentrations. The resulting total energies have been used to assess the applicability of some of the proposed models for oxygen ordering in this system. We find that the results are consistent with an Ising-like model with asymmetric next-neighbor interactions between oxygen sites. We determine effective interaction parameters from the first principles calculations and use them to compute the phase diagram for the system, which is in excellent agreement with experiment for the tetragonal-orthorhombic I transition.