Elastic behavior of a Y-Ba-Cu-O sample prepared by the MPMG method

Ultrasonic velocity measurements have been undertaken by the pulse transmission technique using Y-Ba-Cu-O samples prepared by the melt-powder-melt-growth (MPMG) process over a temperature range of 80-300 K. It has been observed that the sample exhibits a very high value of Young's and rigidity moduli, thereby indicating that the material is an excellent one from the point of view of its mechanical strength. Further, the Young's modulus apart from exhibiting a hump at around 120 K, is found to increase continuously with decreasing temperature. In the superconducting phase, however, the modulus is found to remain almost constant. It has been concluded that the observed elastic behavior, to a large extent, is analogous to that of normal oxide materials. In order to understand how far the experimentally observed behavior deviates at 120 K, the elastic moduli of the sample were also estimated theoretically and compared with the empirical values.