2022, Shipulin, Ilya A., Thomas, Aleena Anna, Holleis, Sigrid, Eisterer, Michael, Nielsch, Kornelius, Hühne, Ruben

We report the local structural and superconducting properties of undoped and Ag-doped YBa2Cu3O6+x (YBCO) films with a thickness of up to 1 µm prepared by pulsed laser deposition on SrTiO3 (STO) single crystals and on ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) and rolling-assisted biaxially textured substrate (RABiTS)-based metal templates. X-ray diffraction demonstrates the high crystalline quality of the films on both single crystalline substrates and metal-based templates, respectively. Although there was only a slight decrease in Tc of up to 1.5 K for the Ag-doped YBCO films on all substrates, we found significant changes in their transport characteristics. The effect of the silver doping mainly depended on the concentration of silver, the type of substrate, and the temperature and magnetic field. In general, the greatest improvement in Jc over a wide range of magnetic fields and temperatures was observed for the 5%Ag-doped YBCO films on STO substrates, showing a significant increase compared to undoped films. Furthermore, a slight Jc improvement was observed for the 2%Ag-doped YBCO films on the RABiTS templates at temperatures below 65 K, whereas Jc decreased for the Ag-doped films on IBAD-MgO-based templates compared to undoped YBCO films. Using detailed electron microscopy studies, small changes in the local microstructure of the Ag-doped YBCO films were revealed; however, no clear correlation was found with the transport properties of the films.

2017-9-4, Lao, M., Hecher, J., Pahlke, P., Sieger, M., Hühne, R., Eisterer, M.

The manifestation of granularity in the superconducting properties of pulsed laser deposited YBCO films on commercially available metallic templates was investigated by scanning Hall probe microscopy at 5 K and was related to local orientation mapping of the YBCO layer. The YBCO films on stainless steel templates with a textured buffer layer of yttrium stabilized ZrO2 grown by alternating beam assisted deposition have a mean grain size of less than with a sharp texture. This results in a homogeneous trapped field profile and spatial distribution of the current density. On the other hand, YBCO films on biaxially textured NiW substrates show magnetic granularity that persists down to a temperature of 5 K and up to an applied magnetic field of 4 T. The origin of the granular field profile is directly correlated to the microstructural properties of the YBCO layer adopted from the granular NiW substrate which leads to a spatially inhomogeneous current density. Grain-to-grain in-plane tilts lead to grain boundaries that obstruct the current while out-of-plane tilts mainly affect the grain properties, resulting in areas with low . Hence, not all grain boundaries cause detrimental effects on since the orientation of individual NiW grains also contributes to observed inhomogeneity and granularity.

2020, Espenhahn, Tilo, Wunderwald, Florian, Möller, Marcel, Sparing, Maria, Hossain, Mahmud, Fuchs, Günter, Abdkader, Anwar, Cherif, Chokri, Nielsch, Kornelius, Hühne, Ruben

Rotating superconducting bearings promise great potential in applications due to their frictionless operation. However, these bearings show a lower dynamic stiffness and damping coefficient compared to ball bearings. In this paper we studied a bearing consisting of a fixed YBCO ring and a rotating magnet above the superconductor. The influence of the magnet aspect ratio on the dynamic stiffness of the bearing was investigated in order to find an optimized size. To change the aspect ratio, we kept the inner diameter of the ring constant and reduced the outer diameter while increasing the ring height. In addition to these magnets, one magnet with a reduced cross-sectional area was studied. The aspect ratio selection was based on preliminary magnetic flux density simulations, which compared the magnetic flux density distribution and the potential radial force for different aspect ratios. To conduct the measurements, the field-cooled magnets were displaced in a lateral direction and then released, resulting in a damped oscillation. The dynamic stiffness constants were calculated for each bearing from the relation of three axis acceleration measurements for different field cooling heights. The comparison of the stiffness constants for the different bearings revealed an optimal aspect ratio for the given YBCO ring. This optimum is almost independent from the cooling height. The comparison between the two magnet rings with similar diameters and different heights was similar for the bearing characteristics at a low cooling height, whereas a significant reduction of stiffness was observed with a larger cooling distance. The difference is bigger for the magnet with a reduced height. The optimal aspect ratio as well as the stiffness dependence on the cross-sectional area was confirmed by simulations of the magnetic flux density distribution. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd.

2012, Wimbush, Stuart C., Marx, Werner, Barth, Andreas, Hall, Simon R.

This work represents the first study into the addition of iridium into the solgel synthesis of the high temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7δ (Y123). Through a biopolymermediated synthetic approach, the homogeneous nature of the precursor sol and the preferred nucleation and growth of Y123 phases allow for a high yield of superconducting nanoparticles with no suppression of the superconducting critical temperature, even at high levels (40 wt%) of iridium addition. We attribute this to iridium not substituting into the Y123 crystal lattice, instead forming an associate phase.