MATERIALS CHARACTERISTICS OF A SINGLE GRAINED Y-BA-CU-O SUPERCONDUCTOR

Single grained Y-Ba-Cu-O superconducting material has demonstrated its unique magnetic properties, such as strong flux trapping (up to 10 T at 40 K) and strong flux shielding (up to 18 T at 4 K) by eliminating the grain boundary weak link and improving the flux pinning effect. Th is improvement of magnetic properties in YBCO superconductors is due t o the advance of materials processing techniques, i.e., top-seeding an d melt-texturing method. With the TSMT method, single grained YBCO sam ples up to several centimeters in diameter can be produced with very h igh reproducibility. In this report, the TSMT method will be introduce d. The results of the TSMT-YBCO sample's superconducting properties, i .e., magnetic field intensity and distribution uniformity, levitation force, etc., as well as their correlation with various materials proce ssing methods will be discussed. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physic s.