A Comparison of 0°–0° and 45°–45° bridge‐Seeded, YBCO single grains

Abstract

A variety of multiseeding techniques have been investigated over the past 20 yr in an attempt to enlarge bulk (RE)BCO superconducting samples fabricated by the top‐seeded melt growth (TSMG) process for practical applications. Unfortunately, these studies have failed to establish whether technically useful values of trapped field can be achieved in multiseeded bulk samples. In this work specially designed, 0°–0° and 45°–45° bridge seeds of different lengths have been employed to produce improved alignment of the seeds during the TSMG process. The ability of these bridge‐seeded samples to trap magnetic field, which is the key superconducting property for practical applications of bulk (RE)BCO, is compared for the samples seeded using 0°–0° and 45°–45° bridge seeds of different lengths. The grain boundaries produced by these bridge seeds are analyzed in detail, and the similarities and differences between the two bridge‐seeding processes are discussed.