Friday, 2D-06, 4:00-4:10

Microstructural and Pinning Properties of YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ Thin Films Doped with Magnetic Nanoparticles

Haiyan Wang

C. F. Tsai¹, and J. Wang¹ and D. G. Naugle²

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3128, USA
²Department of Physics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA
*979-845-5082, FAX 979-845-6259, wangh@ece.tamu.edu

In this research, we conducted a systematic study on the microstructural and physical properties of the YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (YBCO) thin films doped with magnetic nanoparticles. We incorporated different magnetic nanoparticles (i.e., Ni, Fe2O3, etc.) with various particle doping concentrations (from 1 to 5 atom %). The dopants were incorporated either by laser ablation of a composite target through premixing the YBCO and dopant powders, or by alternative growth of the YBCO and dopant targets. Film thickness was controlled at 200nm range for all the samples. We conducted a detailed microstructural characterization on all the doped samples by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The critical current densities at both self-field and in-field (J_c^sf and J_c^in-field (H//c)) and the critical transition temperature (T_c) of the doped YBCO thin films and a reference YBCO sample were measured by a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID). The T_c of the doped YBCO films varies from 85K-89K and the J_c is in the range of 1.2-2MA/cm² (at liquid N², 75.5K) depending on the dopant and doping approach. The pinning properties of these doped YBCO films were explored at different temperatures and correlated with their microstructural characteristics.

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