Critical Current Density and Fabrication of the Polycrystalline Y-Ba-Cu-O Superconductor

The progress toward major applications of the bulk YB sub 2 Cu sub 3 O sub (7-delta) type high T sub c superconductors has been hampered by low transport critical current densities and their significant degradation in weak magnetic fields. In this paper, various approaches for creating new microstructures in order to successfully overcome these problems and achieve dramatically improved J sub c values will be reviewed and compared.