Magnetization Measurements of Single Levitated Grains of Ba sub 2 YCu sub 3 O sub 7
11 January 1989
To increase our knowledge of the properties of the new high-T sub c ceramic superconductors. there is a need to develop measurement techniques which can probe the superconducting of single micronsize crystalline grains weighing a fraction of a nanogram. An understanding of superconductivity at small length scales in these highly anisotropic superconductors is essential to an accurate assessment of the application potential of both bulk and thin-film ceramics which in practice consist of aggregates of such crystals. A particular advantages of studying small grains of high-T sub c superconductor such as Ba sub 2 YCu sub 3 O sub x is the relative ease in obtaining single-crystal samples without defects and with uniform chemical composition. Reported transport and magnetization studies on single grains of high-T sub c superconductors have been limited to sample with typical dimensions larger than 0.1 mm.