Effect of sintering time and temperature on superconducting properties of Chevrel phase wires made with micron-sized powder

Abstract

A systematic study of inductively measured T c, transport critical current density (J c) and the field (B max) at which pinning force density is maximum has been made on newly developed Chevrel phase superconducting (CPS) wires. At fixed sintering temperatures, B max(4.2 K) increases monotonically to values ≥ 0.16 B c2 with increasing sintering times (t s). Simultaneously, the deterioration of J c(4.2 K, 7.5 T) values and the inductive transition show a degradation of the CPS core. The emerging picture lends support to the evolution of well comnected paths in a granular CPS core, however, limited by degradation due to Pb/ S losses.