Effects of Y211 phase contents on the critical current density Jc and microstructural analysis in YBCO bulk superconductors

YBCO bulk superconductors were prepared by the solid state reaction and top-seed-melt-textured growth(TSMTG) process. By using the AC susceptibility measurement, the critical transition temperature Tc of samples is 91.5 Kfor the highest value, and the transition width △TC is less than 1 K. The highest magnetization critical current densities Jcachieved 106 A/cm2 under 5 T at 10 K and 1.35×104 A/cm2 under 2 T at 70 K (H//c), respectively. The results combining theSEM observation indicate that doping of Y211 particles is more effective in improving the growth quality of melt-texturedYBCO superconductor and in reducing the micro-cracks of specimens. Doping of Y2O3 powder forms the rod-shaped Y211particles, but doping of Y211 particles directly to matrix materials forms the spherical Y211 particles mainly. Combiningthe microstructures with Jc measurements shows that the interfaces are most important on flux bundle pinning, in which thegradient of free energy is larger than that of other place between the Y

Effects of Y211 phase contents on the critical current density Jc and microstructural analysis in YBCO bulk superconductors

YBCO bulk superconductors were prepared by the solid state reaction and top-seed-melt-textured growth (TSMTG) process. By using the AC susceptibility measurement, the critical transition temperature Tc of samples is 91.5 K for the highest value, and the transition width ?Tc is less than 1 K. The highest magnetization critical current densities Jc achieved 106 A/cm2 under 5 T at 10 K and 1.35?104 A/cm2 under 2 T at 70 K (H//c), respectively. The results combining the SEM observation indicate that doping of Y211 particles is more effective in improving the growth quality of melt-textured YBCO superconductor and in reducing the micro-cracks of specimens. Doping of Y2O3 powder forms the rod-shaped Y211 particles, but doping of Y211 particles directly to matrix materials forms the spherical Y211 particles mainly. Combining the microstructures with Jc measurements shows that the interfaces are most important on flux bundle pinning, in which the gradient of free energy is larger than that of other place between the Y211 particles and the Y123 matrix materials.