CHARACTERIZATION AND PROPERTIES OF MELT GROWN Y-BA-CU-O SAMPLES CONTAINING BARIUM-TITANATE INCLUSIONS

Journal article

We report on a comparative study of the properties of Y-Ba-Cu-O samples produced by the melt and quench technique. The addition of 5% weight BaTiO3 to one of the samples completely changed the field dependence of the critical current density resulting in an improvement by one order of magnitude at 4 T and 77 K in comparison to the plain Y-Ba-Cu-O sample. X-ray microanalysis showed that despite the titanate particles absorbing barium from the matrix, the reaction zone remained confined to the immediate neighbourhood of the inclusions. This shows that this kind of treatment can be carried out without severe chemical damage to the superconducting matrix in spite of the high temperatures involved in the process and the presence of liquid-solid reactions. However, the stressing of the matrix by the presence of the inclusions created a large density of microcracks, with effects also on the twin spacing. The differences in the critical currents between the two samples clearly display the effect of the inclusions on the direct and indirect generation of pinning centres.

Authors: Schilling, O; Yang, Y; Grovenor, C; Beduz, C

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: PHYSICA C
• Volume: 170
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 123-129
• Publication date: 1990-09-01
• DOI: 10.1016/0921-4534(90)90238-A
• ISSN: 0921-4534
• Language: English