Revealing the Anisotropy in MgB2 Superconductor and Investigation of Critical Current near Critical Temperature by Using Hall Probe Susceptibility Technique

Abstract

We report the results of an investigation on critical current measurements in bulk MgB2 superconductor by using Hall probe ac susceptibility. The temperature versus ac susceptibility has been measured as a function of external ac magnetic field with no dc part and magnitude in the range 240–1200 A/m by using the Hall probe method. The real part of the Hall probe susceptibility showed two-step transitions near critical temperature. We attributed this behavior to the anisotropic nature of the MgB2 compound. Close to the critical temperature the estimated anisotropy parameter is γ≈2.5, a value that is in fair agreement to the ones reported in the literature for polycrystalline and single crystals MgB2. We have also analyzed the susceptibility data within the framework of a critical state model (using the real part of the susceptibility) and an anisotropic nature of MgB2 compound. The inter-grain critical current is found to be 4×106 A/m2 at 39.59 K by using the critical state model. The temperature dependence of the critical current density was found to be in the form of J c (T)∝(1−T/T c ) β , where β was calculated as 2.30 by using critical state model, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy was used for grain size estimation.