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Concept
Yttrium barium copper oxide
Summary
Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is a family of crystalline chemical compounds that display high-temperature superconductivity; it includes the first material ever discovered to become superconducting above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K) at about .
Many YBCO compounds have the general formula YBa2Cu3O7−x (also known as Y123), although materials with other Y:Ba:Cu ratios exist, such as YBa2Cu4Oy (Y124) or Y2Ba4Cu7Oy (Y247). At present, there is no singularly recognised theory for high-temperature superconductivity.
It is part of the more general group of rare-earth barium copper oxides (ReBCO) in which, instead of yttrium, other rare earths are present.
In April 1986, Georg Bednorz and Karl Müller, working at IBM in Zurich, discovered that certain semiconducting oxides became superconducting at relatively high temperature, in particular, a lanthanum barium copper oxide becomes superconducting at 35 K. This oxide was an oxygen-deficient perovskite-related material that proved promising and stimulated the search for related compounds with higher superconducting transition temperatures. In 1987, Bednorz and Müller were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work.
Following Bednorz and Müller's discovery, a team led by Paul Ching Wu Chu at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and University of Houston discovered that YBCO has a superconducting transition critical temperature (Tc) of 93 K. The first samples were Y1.2Ba0.8CuO4, but this was an average composition for two phases, a black and a green one. Workers at the Carnegie Institution of Washington found that the black phase (which turned out to be the superconductor) had the composition YBa2Cu3O7−δ.
YBCO was the first material found to become superconducting above 77 K, the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, whereas the majority of other superconductors require more expensive cryogens. Nonetheless, YBCO and its many related materials have yet to displace superconductors requiring liquid helium for cooling.
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