Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
The ordering in the Cu-O basal plane of the high Tc superconductor YBa2Cu3Oz is investigated. Asymmetric pairwise interactions between nearest and next nearest neighbors are assumed. Ordering instabilities in two-dimensional k-space are mapped out as a function of the interactions and the ordered ground state superstructures consisting of occupied and empty oxygen sites are determined. A temperature-composition phase diagram is calculated by means of the Cluster Variation Method. The thermodynamic behavior of the superconducting compound is discussed in the light of these results.