We report on the first small-angle neutron scattering measurements from the flux line lattice (FLL) in the
high-Tc cuprate
superconductor Sr0.9La0.1CuO2. Using a polycrystalline sample, the scattered intensity decreases monotonically with
scattering angle away from the undiffracted beam, independently of the azimuthal
angle around the beam. The absence of clear peaks in the intensity suggests the
establishment of a highly disordered FLL within the grains. We find that the intensity
distribution may be represented by the form factor for a single flux line in the London
approximation, with some contribution from crystal anisotropy. Most interestingly
however, we find that, over the observed field range, the temperature dependence of
the diffracted intensity is best represented by s-wave pairing, with lower limits
of the gap values being very similar to the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer value of
Δ(0) = 1.76 kBTc. However, a qualitative consideration of corrections to the observed intensity
suggests that these gap values are likely to be higher, implying strong-coupling
behaviour.