Impurity effects on activation energy, structure and physical properties of Ybco superconductor

Abstract

The influence of separately added 0.3 wt%, CdO, Bi₂O₃, BeO and SiO₂ on the phase formation, microstructure, magnetic and transport properties of Y₁Ba₂Cu₃O_(7-$\delta$)  (Y-123 or YBCO) fabricated by conventional solid state reaction method has been analyzed. The results reveal a very low solubility limit for bismuth and silicon in the Y-123 phase, leading to precipitation phases located within intergranular regions. BeO addition suppresses the granular nature of the structure by probably incorporating into the host matrix. CdO does not have a remarkable effect both on structural and superconducting properties of the Y-123 at this doping ratio. Attractive infield transition behavior was obtained in the Bi₂O₃ added sample with a narrower transition width and an increase of transition temperatures approximately 1 K. The activation energy (U₀), a potential energy barrier to prevent flux flow, of the samples was estimated by taking into account Arrhenius law. The best U₀ value was computed to be 1.11 eV belonging to the Bi₂O₃ added sample which implies the contribution of 3-5 µm sized Bi containing precipitation regions on the flux pinning capability of the Y-123.

Keywords

• $Y_{1}Ba_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-\delta}$
• superconductor
• doping
• activation energy
• flux pinning

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