Enhanced Inter-grain Connectivity in Nano-particles Doped (Cu0.5Tl0.5)Ba2Ca2Cu3O10−δ Superconductors

TLDR: In this article, nano-particles of CuO, BaO and CaO2 were added to polycrystalline (Cu0.5Tl 0.5)Ba2Ca2Cu3O10−δ superconductors.

Abstract: Polycrystalline (Cu0.5Tl0.5)Ba2Ca2Cu3O10−δ superconductors show strong composition variations at the termination ends of the crystals which compromise over-all superconducting properties of the final compound. These composition variations are one of the root causes of void formation which produces a poor quality material. The better inter-grain coupling suppresses the Josephson losses required for higher transport critical current density (J c ). The lower losses across the inter-grain Josephson junctions are essential for wire and microelectronic applications. We have fixed such inadvertent composition variation in (Cu0.5Tl0.5)Ba2Ca2Cu3O10−δ superconductors by doping them with nano-particles of CuO, BaO and CaO2. Nano-particles doped (Cu0.5Tl0.5)Ba2Ca2Cu3O10−δ superconductors were synthesized at 860 °C and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), resistivity (ρ), ac-susceptibility (χ), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements. The magnitude of superconductivity is significantly enhanced with the doping of nano-particles. The samples with 15 wt. % addition of CuO nano-particles have even shown textured elongated crystalline with extremely low population of voids.