Ag. Ulyashin et al., THE PROPERTY IMPROVEMENT OF BULK HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS BY PLASMA TREATMENT, Physica. C, Superconductivity, 235, 1994, pp. 407-408
An influence of atomic oxygen exposure on the superconductivity of YBa
2Cu3O7-x, Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+y and Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2O8+z ceramics has been exa
mined by the critical current density J(c), critical temperature T-c a
nd X-ray diffraction measurements. It is shown that exposure of high-T
-c superconductors to a low power density oxygen plasma at 473 K and 6
73 K leads to an increase of both T-c and J(c). The improvement of sup
erconductivity can be explained by the passivation of dangling bonds a
nd defects on grain boundaries of these materials.