No Arabic abstract
$MgB_2$ becomes superconducting just below 40 K. Whereas porous polycrystalline samples of $MgB_2$ can be synthesized from boron powders, in this letter we demonstrate that dense wires of $MgB_2$ can be prepared by exposing boron filaments to $Mg$ vapor. The resulting wires have a diameter of 160 ${mu}m$, are better than 80% dense and manifest the full $chi = -1/4{pi}$ shielding in the superconducting state. Temperature-dependent resistivity measurements indicate that $MgB_2$ is a highly conducting metal in the normal state with $rho (40 K)$ = 0.38 $mu Ohm$-$cm$. Using this value, an electronic mean free path, $l approx 600~AA$ can be estimated, indicating that $MgB_2$ wires are well within the clean limit. $T_c$, $H_{c2}(T)$, and $J_c$ data indicate that $MgB_2$ manifests comparable or better superconducting properties in dense wire form than it manifests as a sintered pellet.
Local magneto-optical imaging and global magnetization measurement techniques were used in order to visualize shielding effects in the superconducting core of MgB_2 wires sheathed by ferromagnetic iron (Fe). The magnetic shielding can provide a Meissner-like state in the superconducting core in applied magnetic fields up to ~1T. The maximum shielding fields are shown to correlate with the saturation fields of magnetization in Fe-sheaths. The shielding has been found to facilitate the appearance of an overcritical state, which is capable of achieving a critical current density (J_c) in the core which is larger than J_c in the same wire without the sheath by a factor of ~2. Other effects caused by the magnetic interaction between the sheath and the superconducting core are discussed.
We have fabricated a series of iron-sheathed superconducting wires prepared by the powder-in-tube technique from (MgB_2)_{1-x}:(Mg+2B)_x initial powder mixtures taken with different proportions, so that x varies from 0 to 1. It turned out that ex-situ prepared wire (x = 0) has considerable disadvantages compared to all the other wires in which in-situ assisted (0 < x < 1) or pure in-situ (x = 1) preparation was used due to weaker inter-grain connectivity. As a result, higher critical current densities J_c were measured over the entire range of applied magnetic fields B_a for all the samples with x > 0. Pinning of vortices in MgB_2 wires is shown to be due to grain boundaries. J_c(B_a) behavior is governed by an interplay between the transparency of grain boundaries and the amount of pinning grain boundaries. Differences between thermo-magnetic flux-jump instabilities in the samples and a possible threat to practical applications are also discussed.
Bulk textured MgB_2 material of nearly full density showing a weak c-axis alignment of the hexagonal MgB_2 grains parallel to the pressure direction was obtained by hot deformation of a stoichiometric MgB_2 pellet prepared by a gas-solid reaction. The texture of the material was verified by comparing the x-ray diffraction patterns of the hot deformed material with isotropic MgB_2 powder. A small, but distinct anisotropy of the upper critical field up to Hc2^{a,b}/Hc2^{c}~1.2 depending on degree of texture was found by resistance and susceptibility measurements. No anisotropy of the critical current density determined from magnetization measurements was found for the textured material.
We have measured the magnetic penetration depth of the recently discovered binary superconductor MgB_2 using muon spin rotation and low field $ac$-susceptibility. From the damping of the muon precession signal we find the penetration depth at zero temperature is about 85nm. The low temperature penetration depth shows a quadratic temperature dependence, indicating the presence of nodes in the superconducting energy gap.
We demonstrate that Fe sheathed LaO0.9F0.1FeAs wires with Ti as a buffer layer were successfully fabricated by the powder-in-tube (PIT) method. Comparing to the common two-step vacuum quartz tube synthesis method, the PIT method is more convenient and safe for synthesizing the novel iron-based layered superconductors. Structural analysis by mean of x-ray diffraction shows that the main phase of LaO0.9F0.1FeAs was obtained by this synthesis method. The transition temperature of the LaO0.9F0.1FeAs wire is around 25 K. The micrograph shows a homogeneous microstructure with a grain size of 1-3 micrometers. The results suggest that the PIT process is promising in preparing high-quality iron-based layered superconductor wires.