Production of Complex Ceramic Films using domestic Inkjet Printers

The production cost is one of the issues for some complex ceramics applications, like the superconducting oxides. The main properties of such materials, i.e., zero electrical resistivity and perfect diamagnetism, make them attractive for several applications, including energy storage. Thus, in this work, we focus on the production and structural characterization of BSCCO superconducting films using a domestic inkjet printer. The precursor solution was prepared following Pechini's method, and it was used, such as the ink. Then, an E-shape film was printed over a SiO2 substrate. The results show that the sample produced with 12 depositions presented a superconducting transition at 81 K and a critical current density of 9.68 A/cm2 at 78 K.

Wire network behaviour of superconducting films with lower symmetrical mesoscopic hole arrays

Superconducting films with the same hole density but different geometric symmetry have been designed and fabricated. The R(H) curves show obvious periodic oscillations with several dips at fractional matching fields. It is found that the period of the oscillations in the low field is not necessary equal to that derived from the hole density, but consistent with that from the corresponding wire networks when the large disk-like film regions are regarded as nodes. The experimental results of R(H), T c (H) and j c (H) at fractional matching fields within the first oscillation also support the rationality of considering films with large-diametered hole arrays as wire networks. Our results demonstrate that the connectivity of superconducting films with large-diametered hole arrays plays a more important role in the oscillations of R(H) curves.

Uniformly Frustrated XY Model: Strengthening of the Vortex Lattice by Intrinsic Disorder

In superconducting films, the role of intrinsic disorder is typically to compete with superconductivity by fragmenting the global phase coherence and lowering the superfluid density. Nonetheless, when a transverse magnetic field is applied to the system and an Abrikosov vortex lattice form, the presence of disorder can actually strengthen the superconducting state against thermal fluctuations. By means of Monte Carlo simulations on the uniformly frustrated XY model in two dimensions, we show that while for weak pinning the superconducting critical temperature Tc increases with the applied field H, for strong enough pinning, the experimental decreasing dependence between Tc and H is recovered with a resulting more robust vortex lattice.