High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) Synthesis and Physical Characterization of Magneto-Superconducting RuSr2Tb1.5Ce0.5Cu2O10 Ceramic Compound

Abstract

The ruthenocuprates family is a very interesting class of materials, because of the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetic ordering. Ruthenocuprates include RuSr2RECu2O8 and RuSr2(RE,Ce)2Cu2O10- (RE = rare earth elements or Y). It is possible to synthesize samples of these phases with Gd, Eu or Sm with normal synthesis conditions. For the others high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) synthesis is required. We had successfully synthesized the RuSr2Tb1.5Ce0.5Cu2O10 by HPHT technique, starting from RuO2, SrO2, Tb4O7, CeO2, CuO and Cu. Around 300 mg of the mixture was allowed to react in a flat-belt-typehigh- pressure apparatus at 6GPa and 1200 °C – 1550 °C. The optimised temperature of synthesis was found to be in the range between 1350 °C – 1450 °C. The as-synthesized compound crystallized with a structure belonging to the space group I4/mmm. DC magnetic susceptibility versus temperature plot for RuSr2Tb1.5Ce0.5Cu2O10 in an applied field of 10 Oe demonstrated magnetic transition at 150 K but the superconducting transition was not clearly observed. To our knowledge this is the first successful synthesis of the Tb based Ru-1222 phase.