Published September 1990 | Version v1
Journal article

Grain growth and the microstructural effects on the properties of YBa2Cu3O7-y superconductor

  • 1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Solid State Science Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA (USA)

Description

The microstructural development and grain growth of YBa2Cu3O7-y ceramics at 925, 950, and 975 degree C were studied. Densification occurred quite rapidly at temperatures below 925 degree C. The grain growth of YBa2Cu3O7-y followed a D5-D05=Kt relation when sintered at 925 and 950 degree C. At 975 degree C, the kinetics changed to cubic (D3) behavior which can be attributed to the formation of a liquid phase at grain boundaries. A trend of decreasing Jc with increasing sintering temperature was observed. Other properties including Tc and the width of the transition were virtually unaffected by the change in microstructure. Without prolonged annealing, a relatively homogeneous oxygen stoichiometry of 6.8 was obtained for fairly dense samples (>93% of theoretical). These results suggest that the oxygenation rate of YBa2Cu3O7-y was quite rapid between the tetragonal phase and the orthorhombic composition of YBa2Cu3O6.8

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Materials Research
Journal Volume
5
Journal Issue
9
Series
J. Mater. Res.
Journal Page Range
1819-1826
ISSN
0884-2914
CODEN
JMREE