High-resolution thermal expansion measurements of solids provide a very useful and complimentary (to heat capacity) method for studying the thermodynamics of solid-state systems. In this short review, first, different measurement techniques are discussed with special emphasis given to capacitance dilatometry. Then, recent results on the thermal expansion of the high-temperature superconductor (HTSC) YBa2Cu3Ox are presented and used to discuss uniaxial pressure effects of Tc, the nature of superconducting fluctuations and oxygen-vacancy ordering in YBa2Cu3Ox.
Netsu Sokutei,
33
(4),
p. 167, (2006)