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BSCCO


Bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide, or BSCCO (pronounced "bisko"), is a family of high-temperature superconductors having the generalized chemical formula Bi2Sr2Can-1CunO2n+4+x, with n=2 being the most commonly studied compound (though n=1 and n=3 have also received significant attention). Discovered as a general class in 1988, BSCCO was the first high-temperature superconductor which did not contain a rare earth element. It is a cuprate superconductor, an important category of high-temperature superconductors sharing a two-dimensional layered (perovskite) structure (see figure at right) with superconductivity taking place in a copper oxide plane. BSCCO and YBCO are the most studied cuprate superconductors.

Specific types of BSCCO are usually referred to using the sequence of the numbers of the metallic ions. Thus Bi-2201 is the n=1 compound (Bi2Sr2CuO6+x), Bi-2212 is the n=2 compound (Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x) and Bi-2223 is the n=3 compound (Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+x).

The BSCCO family is analogous to a thallium family of high-temperature superconductors referred to as TBCCO and having the general formula Tl2Ba2Can-1CunO2n+4+x, and a mercury family HBCCO of formula HgBa2Can-1CunO2n+2+x. There are a number of other variants of these superconducting families. In general their critical temperature at which they become superconducting rises for the first few members then falls. Thus Bi-2201 has Tc ≈ 2 K, Bi-2212 has Tc ≈ 95 K, Bi-2223 has Tc ≈ 108 K, and Bi-2234 has Tc ≈ 104 K. This last member is very difficult to synthesize.


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