Influence of Artificially Macroscopical Drilling on the Crystal Growth Orientation of Single Domain SmBCO Bulk Superconductor

Miao Wang,Wan-Min Yang,Yuguang Liu,Xiaomei Wang,Hang Xian

doi:10.3390/cryst11020150

Miao Wang, Wan-Min Yang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst11020150

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Abstract

A large drilled single domain SmBa2Cu3O7−δ (SmBCO) bulk superconductor with a diameter of 32 mm and different hole sizes was successfully fabricated using the modified top-seeded infiltration and growth (TSIG) process. The morphology, superconducting properties, and grain boundary orientation growth of the drilled SmBCO samples were investigated. It was found that not only are the properties of the drilled sample equivalent to those of normal SmBCO bulk superconductors, but also the NdBCO seed crystal can be well controlled because of the increase in the specific surface area in the solid phase pellet. In addition, the growth orientation along the tangent direction of the holes was first noticed in the drilled single domain SmBCO bulk superconductor. This conclusion is highly important for the accurate control of the growth temperature of high temperature bulk superconductors.

Highlights

Due to their zero-resistance property and diamagnetism, superconducting materials have attracted significant attention since their discovery [1,2,3]
It has been reported that the development of MgO-NdBCO generic seed was used for fabricating REBCO bulk superconductors in the air using top-seeded melted texture growth (TSMTG) and top-seeded infiltration and growth (TSIG) processes [11,12]
It appears that the MgO-NdBCO generic seed has a higher melting temperature and similar crystal structure to all bulk superconductors in REBCO, the difference in melting temperature between SmBCO precursor powders and the seed crystal is relatively small

Summary

Introduction

Due to their zero-resistance property and diamagnetism, superconducting materials have attracted significant attention since their discovery [1,2,3]. Reported that a successful YBCO bulk superconductor from drilled preforms with a porous network structure of holes presented a high performance in terms of increasing the specific surface area [15]. As indicated, such a porous structure can increase the surface area ratio, which allows the interfacial energy to be released efficiently. In the current study, crack-free SmBCO bulk superconductors with a porous structure derived from the thin-wall material concept of reference [16] were successfully fabricated on the basis of the conventional NdBCO seed crystal with the modified TSIG process. The growth characteristics, and superconducting properties and growth orientation of the drilled samples, were investigated in detail

Facile Preparation of Drilled SmBCO Bulk Superconductor

The Surface Morphology of the Drilled

The Surface Morphology of the Drilled Single Domain SmBCO Bulk Superconductor

Conclusions