Embedding of Secondary Phase 211 Particles in Melt-Textured Ternary (Nd,Eu,Gd)-Ba-Cu-O

Abstract

We report on the embedding of secondary phase 211 particles into the ternary 123 superconductors of the type (Nd_0.33Eu_0.33Gd_0.33)Ba₂Cu₃O_y (NEG). It is found that the externally added 211 particles can act as nucleation sites in order to control the 211 particle size and distribution. Measurements of magnetization loops reveal that the position of the secondary peak can be shifted towards higher values with increasing the Gd content of the 211 particles, whereas the largest J _c values are achieved in the sample with an even LRE ratio. From a pinning force scaling analysis, we find that the peak in the pinning force diagrams can be shifted to 0.54, which indicates a further strengthening of the δT _c -pinning.