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Study of growth kinetics in melt-textured YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7{minus}{ital x}}

Journal Article · · Journal of Materials Research
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Texas Center for Superconductivity and Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204 (United States)
  2. Intermagnetics General Corporation, Latham, New York (United States)
  3. Energy Technology Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)

Directional solidification has been shown to be a successful way of achieving high current densities in bulk YBCO. The lack of understanding of the growth kinetics, however, makes it difficult to fabricate longer samples and reduce the processing times. To study the growth kinetics, quenching experiments of undoped YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7{minus}{ital x}} (Y-123) and Y-123 doped with Pt and Nd from above the peritectic temperature with different holding times, {ital t}, were conducted. The results of these experiments indicate that the average 211 particle size varies as {ital t}{sup 1/3}. Growth rate experiments were also conducted on these samples to determine the maximum growth rate for plane front solidification, {ital R}{sub max}. This quantity was measured for undoped and doped Y-123 and its was found that the addition of Pt did not increase {ital R}{sub max} while the addition of Nd doubled the growth rate. Using the coarsening results together with the growth rate experiments, the diffusivity of Y in liquid and the 211-liquid interfacial energy for undoped and doped Y-123 were calculated. {copyright} {ital 1996 Materials Research Society.}

OSTI ID:
432497
Journal Information:
Journal of Materials Research, Journal Name: Journal of Materials Research Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 11; ISSN JMREEE; ISSN 0884-2914
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English