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The Influence of Different Additives on MgB2 Superconductor Obtained by Ex Situ Spark Plasma Sintering: Pinning Force Aspects

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Correlated Functional Oxides

Abstract

Superconducting samples of MgB2 prepared by ex situ spark plasma sintering were characterized by magnetic measurements emphasizing functional characteristics such as the critical current density J c, the irreversibility field H irr or the product J c(0) · µ0 · H irr, and the pinning-force-related parameters extracted within the universal scaling law and the percolation-based theory. Additions introduced into MgB2 were classified as following: approximately chemically inert (type 1: h-BN, c-BN, and graphene), reactive with formation of MyBz (type 2: RE2O3 with RE being a rare earth element such as Ho, La, or Eu) or MguMv (type 3: Sb, Sb2O3, Bi, Bi2O3, Te, TeO2, Ge, and GeO2), and additives which are source of carbon substituting for boron in the crystal lattice of MgB2 (type 4: fullerene (F), F + c-BN, SiC + Te, Ge2H10C6O7, and B4C). Each group of additives show specific features, but within each group there are differences. When considering the influence of the additive of types 1–3, one has to pay attention also to substitutional x-carbon level which shows a strong influence on the functional and on the pinning-force-related parameters. A general trend is that at low x and high temperatures (>~15 K), samples are in the point pinning region and contribution of the grain boundary pinning is increasing when the additive amount is higher and the temperature is lower. There are also exceptions and within the general trend there are notable differences among the samples. From a practical point of view, additives such as c-BN, Te, Ge2H10C6O7, or B4C are shown to increase high magnetic field functional characteristics such as J c and H irr, while suppression of J c at low magnetic fields is minimized.

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Acknowledgments

This work was performed within Partnership program in the priority domains—PN II, funded by MEN-UEFISCDI, project No. 214/2014 BENZISUPRA, Romania. Authors thank Dr. V. Sandu and Dr. L. Miu for useful comments, Dr. S. Popa, Dr. V. Mihalache, Dr. I. Pasuk, Dr. M. Enculescu, and Y. Hayasaka, Dr. R.F. Negrea, and A. Kuncser for helping with magnetization measurements, XRD measurements, Rietveld refinements, SEM, and TEM observations, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Materials Physics, Atomistilor 405A, 077125, Magurele, Romania

    P. Badica, G. Aldica, A. M. Ionescu & M. Burdusel

  2. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei 313, 060042, Bucharest, Romania

    M. Burdusel & D. Batalu

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Biology-Oriented Science and Technology, Kindai University, Kinokawa, Wakayama, Japan

    Hiroaki Nishikawa

  2. College of Science and Technology, Nihon University, Funabashi, Chiba, Japan

    Nobuyuki Iwata

  3. Tsu, Mie, Japan

    Tamio Endo

  4. Materials Science and Engineering , University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA

    Yayoi Takamura

  5. Korea Institute of Materials Science, Seongsan, Changwon, Gyeongnam, Korea (Republic of)

    Gun-Hwan Lee

  6. College of Design and Manufacturing Technology, Research Center for Environmentally Friendly Materials Engineering, Muroran Institute of Technology, Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan

    Paolo Mele

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Badica, P., Aldica, G., Ionescu, A.M., Burdusel, M., Batalu, D. (2017). The Influence of Different Additives on MgB2 Superconductor Obtained by Ex Situ Spark Plasma Sintering: Pinning Force Aspects. In: Nishikawa, H., Iwata, N., Endo, T., Takamura, Y., Lee, GH., Mele, P. (eds) Correlated Functional Oxides. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43779-8_4

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