The effect of Zn substitution on the suppression of Tc of Y1-xCaxBa2(Cu1-yZny)3O7-δ superconductors: the pseudogap and the systematic shift of the optimum hole content

The effect of Zn substitution on the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, was investigated for the sintered Y1-xCaxBa2(Cu1-yZny)3O7-δ compounds over a wide range of hole concentration per CuO2 plane, p. Ca substitution enabled us to study the deeply overdoped region. p was changed by changing the oxygen deficiency (δ). A strongly p-dependent rate of suppression of Tc with Zn (dTc/dy) was found. From the analysis of the dTc(p)/dy and Tc(p,y) data, we found that the optimum hole content, popt, shifts to higher values with increasing Zn and superconductivity is at its strongest when p = 0.185 ± 0.005. Various complementary experiments have identified this as the hole content where the pseudogap vanishes quite abruptly. We have discussed the possible relevance of these ideas with our findings