Low resistivity (clean) MgB2 bulk samples annealed in Mg vapor show an increase in upper critical field Hc2(T) and irreversibility field Hirr(T) by a factor of 2 in both transport and magnetic measurements. The best sample displayed Hirr above 14 T at 4.2 K and 6 T at 20 K. These changes were accompanied by an increase of the 40 K resistivity from 1.0 to 18 microohm-cm and a lowering of the resistivity ratio from 15 to 3, while the critical temperature Tc decreased by only 1-2 K. These results point the way to make prepare MgB2 attractive for magnet applications.
We report the synthesis and variation of superconductivity parameters such as transition temperature Tc, upper critical field Hc, critical current density Jc, irreversibility field Hirr and flux pinning parameter (Fp) for the MgB2-xCx system with nano-Carbon doping up to x=0.20. Carbon substitutes successfully on boron site and results in significant enhancement of Hirr and Jc(H). Resistivity measurements reveal a continuous decrease in Tc under zero applied field, while the same improves remarkably at higher fields with an increase in nano-C content for MgB2-xCx system. The irreversibility field value (Hirr) is 7.6 & 6.6 Tesla at 5 and 10K respectively for the pristine sample, which is enhanced to 13.4 and 11.0 Tesla for x = .08 sample at same temperatures. Compared to undoped sample, critical current density (Jc) for the x=0.08 nano-Carbon doped sample is increased by a factor of 24 at 10K at 6 Tesla field.
The relationship between irreversibility field, Hirr, and crystallinity of MgB2 bulks including carbon substituted samples was studied. The Hirr was found to increase with an increase of FWHM of MgB2 (110) peak, which corresponds to distortion of honeycomb boron sheet, and their universal correlation was discovered even including carbon substituted samples. Excellent Jc characteristics under high magnetic fields were observed in samples with large FWHM of (110) due to the enhanced intraband scattering and strengthened grain boundary flux pinning. The relationship between crystallinity and Hirr can explain the large variation of Hirr for MgB2 bulks, tapes, single crystals and thin films.
We investigated the effect of nanoscale-C doping on the critical current density Jc and irreversibility field Birr of Fe-sheathed MgB2 tapes prepared by the in-situ powder-in-tube method. The tapes were heat treated at 600-950C for 1 h. Higher values of Jc and Birr were seen for 5 at.%C-doped MgB2 tapes at higher sintering temperatures, where substantial substitution of boron for carbon occurred. The C-doped samples sintered at 950C showed the highest Birr, for example, at 4.2 K, the Birr reached 22.9 T. In particular, at 20 K, Birr for the C-doped tape achieved 9 T, which is comparable to the upper critical field of the commercial NbTi at 4.2 K. This role of nano-sized C particles can be very beneficial in the fabrication of MgB2 tapes for magnetic resonance imaging applications at 20 K.
We have studied the upper critical field, Bc2, in poly-crystalline MgB2 samples in which disorder was varied in a controlled way to carry selectively p and s bands from clean to dirty limit. We have found that the clean regime survives when p bands are dirty and s bands are midway between clean and dirty. In this framework we can explain the anomalous behaviour of Al doped samples, in which Bc2 decreases as doping increases.
We have developed disk-shaped MgB2 bulk superconducting magnets (20, 30 mm in diameter, 10 mm in thickness) using the in-situ process from Mg and B powders and evaluated the temperature dependence of trapped magnetic field. A pair of two disc-shaped bulks of 30 mm in diameter and 10 mm in thickness magnetized by field-cooling condition showed trapped fields of 1.2, 2.8 and 3.1 T at 30, 20 and 17.5 K, respectively. High trapped field over 3 T was recorded for the first time.