Cracking and oxygenation of YBaCuO bulk superconductors: application to c-axis elements for current limitation

Abstract

A process to elaborate crack free, oxygenated c-axis samples in YBa 2Cu 3O x bulk superconductors is reported. This includes texturing of crack free pellets and development of an adequate oxygen annealing treatment to avoid cracking during oxygen uptake. For current limitation in c-direction such a process is needed as c-axis elements are particularly susceptible to ab-plane cracking during oxygenation. Mechanical properties have been compared for different annealing treatments by flexural strength measurements. With the load applied in ab-direction the mean flexural strength is 58 MPa in as-textured c-axis bars and 48 MPa in c-axis bars which were oxygenated using a customized annealing treatment. The conventional oxygen annealing treatments lead to macroscopic oxygenation cracks which reduced flexural strength to 10–20 MPa. Bars cut in ab-direction do not show significant variation in flexural strength (load applied in c-direction) as a function of the annealing condition with an average value of 145 MPa.