Processing and fabrication of superconducting ceramics by tape casting.

Of the various fabrication means for bulk ceramic high T sub c superconductors, tape casting is a method offering promise because it produces thin sheets or strips, can be easily shaped and can be laminated with compatible metal or oxide layers. One requisite for increasing the critical current density in these tapes is to increase the crystallographic texture where the c axis of Ba sub 2 YCu sub 3 O sub 7 is normal to the tape surface thereby allowing the conducting planes to be parallel to the sheets. Two methods of enhancing texture were studied; 1) use of plate-like particles aligned in the shear field of the casting head and; 2) use of magnetic fields. A mixture of small and large (plate-like) particles in a casting slurry produced tapes with about twice the orientation expected in randomly oriented grains.