TITLE:
Ceramic Nanocrystalline Superconductor Gadolinium Barium Copper Oxide (GdBaCuO) at Different Treating Temperatures
AUTHORS:
V. S. Vinila, Reenu Jacob, Anusha Mony, Harikrishnan G. Nair, Sheelakumari Issac, Sam Rajan, Anitha S. Nair, D. J. Satheesh, Jayakumari Isac
KEYWORDS:
Gadolinium Barium Copper Oxide (GBCO), Nanocrystalline, XRD, SEM, EDX, Debye Scherrer’s Formula, Instrumental Broadening, Williamson-Hall Plot Method
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Crystallization Process and Technology,
Vol.4 No.3,
July
29,
2014
ABSTRACT: With the
discovery of high-TC superconducting materials like Yttrium Barium Cupric
Oxide, Bismuth Strontium Calcium Copper Oxide and Thallium Calcium Barium
Copper Oxide, tremendous interest has developed over the past two years in
understanding these materials as well as utilizing them in a variety of
applications. The thin films of these materials are expected to play an important
role in the area of microelectronics, especially for interconnects in
integrated circuits, Josephson junctions,
magnetic field sensors and optical detectors. Here, the authors designed a new nanocrystalline
ceramic type II high-TC superconductor, Gadolinium Barium Copper Oxide
(GdBaCuO/GBCO). The GBCO perovskite phase structure was prepared by the
conventional solid state thermochemical reaction technique involving mixing,
milling, calcination and sintering. In GBCO system, the method for controlling
microstructure and superconducting state is related to oxygen content consideration
because small changes in oxygen concentration can oftenlead to huge change in Tc. In order to show the viability of the
proposed method, super-conducting powder was prepared in special furnace. The
sample was analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), an indispensible
non-destructive tool for structural materials characterization and quality
control which makes use of the Debye-Scherrer method. The comparison of XRD
results with JCPDS files confirmed the orthorhombic structure of the sample.
Micro-structural features are studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) which
revealed that its particle size is in the nanometer range. It also confirmed
the calculated value of particle size from Debye Scherrer’s formula. EDX plot
shows the presence of all the constituents. X-ray instrumental peak broadening
analysis was used to evaluate the size and lattice strain by the
Williamson-Hall Plot method.