Electron diffraction investigation of Pb-Stabilised Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O high-Tc superconductor

An electron diffraction investigation of the Pb-stabilised (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+d superconducting phase (the 2223 phase) with a Tc of ∼ 110 K has been carried out. The phase exhibits an incommensurate superlattice along the [100] direction. The dimensions of the basic cell are a = 0.5410 (2) nm, b = 0.5421 (3) nm and c = 3.7123 (15) nm. Based on the occurrence of systematic absences and symmetry analysis of convergent beam electron diffraction patterns, the space group of this superconducting phase is determined to be Amaa.