D. Buhl et al., CRITICAL-CURRENT DENSITY OF BI-2212 THICK-FILMS PROCESSED BY PARTIAL MELTING, Superconductor science and technology, 10(1), 1997, pp. 32-40
Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta (Bi-2212) thick films were produced via tape casti
ng and partial melting. The aim of the study was to investigate the in
fluence of the different heat treatment steps on the critical current
density of the films. Five processing parameters were studied: maximum
densification temperature, cooling rate during crystallization, annea
ling time after crystallization, reduction treatment and processing at
mosphere. It will also be demonstrated that the critical current densi
ty strongly depends on the sample thickness. In 20 mu m thick films we
achieved 20 000 A cm(-2) at 77 K-0 T and 300 000 A cm(-2) at 10 K-0 T
. The critical current density at 77 K-O T dropped to 6200 A cm(-2) in
130 mu m thick films and levelled out at 3000 A cm(-2) in bulk sample
s thicker than 500 mu m. These high critical current densities were re
ached only using a narrow processing window. The maximum densification
temperature had to be within 5-10 degrees C above the solidus tempera
ture (875 degrees C). Cooling from the maximum temperature to an annea
ling temperature of 850 degrees C had to be around 5 to 10 degrees C h
(-1) and the final annealing step was prolonged up to 70 h to optimize
the critical current density. All processing steps were carried out i
n pure oxygen (1 atm) except the last step, reduction annealing at 500
degrees C for 20 h, that was performed in nitrogen (p(O-2) approximat
e to 0.01 atm). Processing in air (p(O-2) = 0.21 atm) instead of oxyge
n leads to strongly decreased critical current densities in the high-t
emperature region above 30 K.