Advances in enlargement of melt-textured Gd-Ba-Cu-O superconductors

We investigated the fabrication of melt-textured Gd-Ba-Cu-O bulk superconductors with the employment of a Gd₂BaO₄ (Gd210)-BaCuO₂-CuO precursor. This enabled us to synthesize a very large Gd-Ba-Cu-O bulk superconductor, 140 mm in diameter. The trapped field distribution measured at 77 K revealed that the sample had no serious cracks, and the maximum field was 2.3 T. The formation behaviour and depressing mechanism of cracking were studied using sintered Gd210-containing precursors. The Ba-Cu-O component in the precursor melted at around 900 °C. The formation of such a liquid phase enhanced the densification of the precursor by liquid phase sintering. The mechanical strength of the sintered precursor was increased compared to the conventional Gd123-Gd211 precursor. This will be effective in preventing crack formation in the texturing process of large single-grain samples. The superconducting properties of the bulk sample fabricated from Gd210-containing precursor have been discussed.