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U.S. Department of Energy
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Controlled grain boundary structures in superconductors. Final report 1 Jan 77-31 Dec 81

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6693986
Theoretical work supported by this grant has lead to the concept of the specific pinning force Q and the development of new methods to sum elementary interaction forces to find Q. Pinning due to changes in transition temperature or thermodynamic critical field in thin layers (e.g., a grain boundary), is greatly reduced due to the proximity effect and the stress field interaction due to the dislocations in the grain boundary has been shown to be negligible. The crystalline anisotropy (CA) and electron scattering (ES) interactions have been computed for the first time for an arbitrary boundary. Experiments on niobium bicrystals, polycrystalline niobium thin foils doped with oxygen, lead-bismuth alloy thin films and lead-bismuth alloy films in which either lead or thallium has been allowed to diffuse down the grain boundaries and out into the grains provide evidence that confirms the predictions of the theory. These results suggest that further improvements in grain boundary pinning in the A-15 compounds, which are relatively high purity, are possible by decreasing their impurity content if that can be accomplished without decreasing their thermodynamic critical field or transition temperature.
Research Organization:
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (USA). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
OSTI ID:
6693986
Report Number(s):
AD-A-114243/9
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English