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Flux Pinning and Critical Current Behavior of MELT-Textured Y-Ba-Cu-O Superconductor

24 April 1989

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High critical current densities (J sub c > 10 sup 4 A/cm sup 2 at 77K) in bulk YBA sub 2 Cu sub 3 O sub 7 superconductors processed by melt- textured-growth (MTG) method result from a near-perfect alignment of the 1-2-3 grains along the a-b conduction plane, which anisotropic superconductivity and anisotropic thermal contraction simultaneously. Our recent investigation indicates that MTG samples have significantly greater flux pinning and trapping characteristics than as-sintered samples, and behave much like a permanent magnet once exposed to a high magnetic field. The superconductor can lift up, from below, a magnet more than ten times its own weight as well as pieces of soft magnetics iron, and exhibits unusual levitation and suspension effects. The critical current, flux pinning, and magnetization behavior of the material will be discussed in terms of processing and microstructure.