Electron Microscopy Imaging of Flux Pinning Defects in YBCO Superconductors

<p>High-temperature superconductors are of great interest because they can transport electrical current without loss. For real-world applications, the amount of current, known as the critical current Ic, that can be carried by superconducting wires is the key figure of merit. Large Ic values are necessary to off-set the higher cost of these wires. The factors that improve Ic (microstructure/performance relationship) in the state-of-the-art coated conductor wires based on YBa₂Cu₃O₇ (YBCO) are not fully understood. However, microstructural defects that immobilise (or pin) tubes of magnetic flux (known as vortices) inside the coated conductors are known to play a role in improving Ic. In this thesis, the vortex-defect interaction in YBCO superconductors was investigated with high-end transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques using two approaches. First, the effect of dysprosium (Dy) addition and oxygenation temperature on the microstructure and critical current were investigated in detail. Changing only the oxygenation temperature leads to many microstructural changes in pure YBCO coated conductors. It was found that Dy addition reduces the sensitivity of the YBCO to the oxygenation temperature, in particular it lowers the microstructural disorder while maintaining the formation of nanoparticles, which both contribute to the enhancement of Ic. In the second approach, two TEM based techniques (off-axis electron holography and Lorentz microscopy) were used to study the magnetic flux vortices. Vortex imaging was attempted with a TEM operated at 300 kV on both a YBCO crystal as well as a YBCO coated conductor. Many challenges were encountered including sample preparation, inhomogeneity, and geometry, in addition to the need to perform measurements at cryogenic temperatures. Although vortices were not able to be observed in the coated conductors, tentative observation of vortices in a YBCO crystal was made using Lorentz microscopy. Improvements for future electron holography experiments on YBCO at low voltage are suggested. This work represents a pioneering step towards directly imaging vortices in YBCO using more widely available microscopes with the aim of better understanding flux pinning to ultimately boost Ic in superconducting wires.</p>

Electron Microscopy Imaging of Flux Pinning Defects in YBCO Superconductors

<p>High-temperature superconductors are of great interest because they can transport electrical current without loss. For real-world applications, the amount of current, known as the critical current Ic, that can be carried by superconducting wires is the key figure of merit. Large Ic values are necessary to off-set the higher cost of these wires. The factors that improve Ic (microstructure/performance relationship) in the state-of-the-art coated conductor wires based on YBa₂Cu₃O₇ (YBCO) are not fully understood. However, microstructural defects that immobilise (or pin) tubes of magnetic flux (known as vortices) inside the coated conductors are known to play a role in improving Ic. In this thesis, the vortex-defect interaction in YBCO superconductors was investigated with high-end transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques using two approaches. First, the effect of dysprosium (Dy) addition and oxygenation temperature on the microstructure and critical current were investigated in detail. Changing only the oxygenation temperature leads to many microstructural changes in pure YBCO coated conductors. It was found that Dy addition reduces the sensitivity of the YBCO to the oxygenation temperature, in particular it lowers the microstructural disorder while maintaining the formation of nanoparticles, which both contribute to the enhancement of Ic. In the second approach, two TEM based techniques (off-axis electron holography and Lorentz microscopy) were used to study the magnetic flux vortices. Vortex imaging was attempted with a TEM operated at 300 kV on both a YBCO crystal as well as a YBCO coated conductor. Many challenges were encountered including sample preparation, inhomogeneity, and geometry, in addition to the need to perform measurements at cryogenic temperatures. Although vortices were not able to be observed in the coated conductors, tentative observation of vortices in a YBCO crystal was made using Lorentz microscopy. Improvements for future electron holography experiments on YBCO at low voltage are suggested. This work represents a pioneering step towards directly imaging vortices in YBCO using more widely available microscopes with the aim of better understanding flux pinning to ultimately boost Ic in superconducting wires.</p>

Anisotropic critical current density and flux pinning mechanism of Fe1+yTe0.6Se0.4 single crystals

Fe1+yTe0.6Se0.4 has considerable application potential due to its large critical current density (J c) and high upper critical magnetic field (H c2). However, the uncertainty of the anisotropy of J c and the unclear flux-pinning mechanism have limited the application of this material. In this study, the J c in three directions were obtained from magnetic hysteresis loop measurements. A large anisotropy of J c ab /J c c ~ 10 was observed, and the origin of the anisotropy was discussed in details. Flux pinning force densities (F p) were obtained from J c, and a non-scaling behavior was found in the normalized pinning force f p[F p/F p-max] versus the normalized field h[H/H c2]. The peaks of pinning force shift from a high h to a low h with increasing temperature. Based on the vortex dynamics analysis, the peak shift was found to originate from the magnetization relaxation. The J c and F p at critical states free from the magnetic relaxation were regained. According to the Dew-Hughes model, the dominant pinning type in Fe1+yTe0.6Se0.4 clean single crystals was confirmed to be normal point pinning.

(RE)Ba2Cu3O7–δ and the Roeser-Huber Formula

We apply the Roeser–Huber formula to the (RE)Ba2Cu3O7−δ (REBCO with RE= rare earths) high-Tc superconducting material class to calculate the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, using the electronic configuration and the crystallographic data. In a former publication (H. P. Roeser et al., Acta Astronautica 2008, 62, 733–736), the basic idea was described and Tc was successfully calculated for the YBa2Cu3O7−δ compound with two oxygen doping levels δ= 0.04 and 0.45, but several open questions remained. One of the problems remaining was the determination of Tc for the δ= 0.45 sample, which can be explained regarding the various oxygen arrangements being possible within the copper-oxide plane. Having established this proper relation and using the various crystallographic data on the REBCO system available in the literature, we show that the Roeser–Huber equation is capable to calculate the Tc of the various REBCO compounds and the effects of strain and pressure on Tc, when preparing thin film samples. Furthermore, the characteristic length, x, determined for the REBCO systems sheds light on the size of the δTc-pinning sites being responsible for additional flux pinning and the peak effect.

Effective Magnetic Field Dependence of the Flux Pinning Energy in FeSe0.5Te0.5 Superconductor

The role of a layered structure in superconducting pinning properties is still at a debate. The effects of the vortex shape, which can assume for example a staircase form, could influence the interplay with extrinsic pinning coming from the specific defects of the material, thus inducing an effective magnetic field dependence. To enlighten this role, we analysed the angular dependence of flux pinning energy U(H,θ) as a function of magnetic field in FeSe0.5Te0.5 thin film by considering the field components along the ab-plane of the crystal structure and the c-axis direction. U(H,θ) has been evaluated from magneto-resistivity measurements acquired at different orientations between the applied field up to 16 T and FeSe0.5Te0.5 thin films grown on a CaF2 substrate. We observed that the U(H,θ) shows an anisotropic trend as a function of both the intensity and the direction of the applied field. Such a behaviour can be correlated to the presence of extended defects elongated in the ab-planes, thus mimicking a layered superconductor, as we observed in the microstructure of the compound. The comparison of FeSe0.5Te0.5 with other superconducting materials provides a more general understanding on the flux pinning energy in layered superconductors.