Magnetic study of YBCO-PST composites

The magnetic properties of granular superconductor-insulator composites wer e investigated. The composites were intimate mixture of the YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) high-temperature superconductor and Pb(Sc0.5Ta0.5)O-3 (PST) ferroel ectric insulator. The observed decay of superconductivity, lowering of the critical temperature and increasing of the number of paramagnetic centres a s PST content increases are explained assuming interdiffusion among YBCO an d PST elements and formation of an additional phase, which did not exist in the initial powders, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.