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Effect of Temperature Cycles on the Critical Current Density of YBa2Cu3O7-δ
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
Abstract
The transport Jc of the polycrystalline YBa2Cu3O7-δ superconductor seems to be dominated by weak links between high Jc regions as evidenced by low Jc values and their strong field dependence. The possible effects of thermal expansion-contraction and the tetragonal-orthorhombic transformation on the weak links and the Jc values were investigated by repeated thermal cycling of sintered pellets between -196°C and various high temperatures (600–850°C) using a furnace heating and cooling in an oxygen atmosphere. While more than a five-fold decrease in Jc from -400 to -70 A/cm2 (at 77K in zero field) is observed after 5 temperature cycles between -196'C and 850°C, only a slight decrease (to -370 Atm2) is noticed after 5 cycles between -196*C to 600°C, the temperature span of which is not all that much smaller than the former cycles. Transmission electron microscopy analysis clearly indicates that the drastic deterioration in Jc by repeated phase transformation is caused by increased amount of microcracks on (001) basal planes near the grain boundaries. The results will be discussed in terms of the large thermal expansion anisotropy of this layer-structured compound.
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- Copyright © Materials Research Society 1988