Related papers: YBCO single grains seeded by 45{\deg} - 45{\deg} b…
Silver (Ag) is an established additive for improving the mechanical properties of single grain, (RE)BCO bulk superconductors (where RE = Sm, Gd and Y). The presence of Ag in the (RE)BCO bulk composition, however, typically reduces the…
Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) and Sm-Ba-Cu-O (SmBCO) thin films have been used for the first time as heterogeneous seeds to multi-seed successfully the melt growth of bulk YBCO in a multi-seeded melt growth (MSMG) process. The use of thin film seeds,…
We have developed a single-direction melt growth method in which REBCO melt-textured bulks grow only vertically from a seed plate utilizing the difference in peritectic temperatures of REBCO. Entirely c-grown YBCO, DyBCO and GdBCO bulks…
Grain boundaries are critical for determining the functionality of polycrystalline materials. Here we present on the structural $\&$ transport properties of grain boundaries in the unconventional superconductor CeCoIn$_5$. We provide a…
Solid-state synthesis is widely used in exploratory research to study various structural modifications that affect the properties (critical temperature, critical current density, irreversibility field, etc.) of superconductors. The…
In this work, we report a strengthened superheating effect caused by a buffering YBa2Cu3Oy (Y123 or YBCO) layer in the Nd1+xBa2-xCu3O7-y (Nd123 or NdBCO) thin film with MgO substrate (i.e., NdBCO/YBCO/MgO thin film). In the cold-seeding…
[100]-tilt grain-boundary YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) junctions are promising for investigation of macroscopic quantum phenomena in high-Tc Josephson junctions. However, fabrication of the [100]-tilt grain-boundary YBCO junctions with a high…
Using an optimized bridge geometry we have been able to make accurate measurements of the properties of YBa2Cu3O7-delta grain boundaries above Tc. The results show a strong dependence of the change of resistance with temperature on grain…
We have developed a new method to fabricate biepitaxial YBa2Cu3O(7-x) (YBCO) Josephson junctions at the nanoscale, allowing junctions widths down to 100 nm and simultaneously avoiding the typical damage in grain boundary interfaces due to…
We review recent experimental and theoretical work on superconductivity in ultrasmall metallic grains, i.e. grains sufficiently small that the conduction electron energy spectrum becomes discrete. The discrete excitation spectrum of an…
RE-Ba-Cu-O (RE denotes rare earth elements) single-grain superconductors have garnered considerable attention owning to their ability to trap strong magnetic field and self-stability for maglev. Here, we employed a modified melt-growth…
We report high field (up to 13 Tesla) magneto transport R(T)H] of YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO):Agx (x= 0.0, 0.1 and 0.2) composites. The transport properties are significantly improved by Ag doping on the insulating grain boundaries of YBCO. Pure and…
The spontaneously generated magnetic flux observed by Mannhart et. al. (1996) in 45 degree grain boundaries in YBCO was explained by them in terms of a d-wave superconducting order parameter and grain boundary faceting. This article argues…
The homogeneity of a large YBaCuO sample fabricated by top-seeded melt-growth has been studied in details. It was particularly shown how structural imperfections and superconducting properties are distributed along the growth front. These…
The current-induced dissipation in YBCO grain boundary tunnel junctions has been measured between 4.2 K and 300 K. It is found that the resistance of 45 degree (100)/(110) junctions decreases linearly by a factor of four when their…
Grain boundaries (GBs) have been shown to limit critical current density, Jc, in YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) coated conductors. Here we use transport measurements and scanning Hall probe microscopy coupled with current reconstruction to demonstrate…
We propose and implement a direct experimental test for subdominant superconducting phases with broken time-reversal symmetry in d-wave superconductors. The critical current of 45-degree asymmetric grain boundary junctions are shown to be…
We have performed a detailed study of the tunneling spectra of bicrystal grain boundary junctions (GBJs) fabricated from the HTS YBCO, BSCCO, LSCO, and NCCO. In all experiments the tunneling direction was along the CuO planes. With the…
The ability of large grain, REBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-\delta}$ [(RE)BCO; RE = rare earth] bulk superconductors to trap magnetic field is determined by their critical current. With high trapped fields, however, bulk samples are subject to a…
We demonstrate the operation of low-noise nano superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) based on the high critical field and high critical temperature superconductor YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$ (YBCO) as ultra-sensitive magnetometers…