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We report the solution fabrication of a MgB2 coated conductor on a stainless steel substrate. The precursor solution of Mg(BH4)2 diethyl ether is initially synthesized by refluxing the milled mixture of NaBH4 and MgCl2 in diethyl ether. Then the Mg(BH4)2 diethyl ether is spin coated on a stainless steel substrate and annealed in Mg vapor, which yields a homogeneous MgB2 coated conductor. X-ray diffraction indicates that the grown MgB2 coated conductor is polycrystalline. It has a superconducting transition temperature of 34-37 K. The slope of the upper critical field Hc2 increases with decreasing temperature, and the extrapolated value of HC2(0) reaches ∼28 T. The critical current density estimated by the Bean model is JC (25 K, 0 T)∼106 A·cm-2. These parameters indicate that the solution method is potentially able to produce MgB2 coated conductors that can satisfy application purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic studies of synthesizing behaviors of sol-gel YBa2Cu3O7− x samples in flowing oxygen atmosphere and their superconductivity have been performed. A set of high temperature ρ-T curves has been obtained for the whole synthesizing process. After four rounds of synthesizing, the resistivity of the sample was around ρ=1.00×10−3Ω · cm at room temperature. The ρ-T curve of the fourth round shows that the orthorhombic to tetragonal phase transformation of the sample occurs around 600 °C, which is lower than that of the YBa2Cu3O7− x sample prepared by conventional solid-state reaction method. Other measurements, such as X-ray diffraction, SEM measurement and low temperature R-T and M-T measurement, were also performed. And the R-T and M-T measurement results suggest that during the synthesizing process, there exist some state at which the sample has better superconductivity than the other states. Moreover, we found screw dislocations presenting on the sample broken surface from the SEM images. This will change the concept that the screw dislocations can only grow on the surface of the YBCO thin films and single crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-density MgB2 (HD-MgB2) superconducting samples ( D ⩾ 2.2 g/cm3), using different sources of magnesium powder as raw material, were synthesized in ambient pressure in a rich Mg environment. The magnesium powders used in the fabrication process include nanometer-sized magnesium particles, powders from Alfa Aesar, ordinary off-the-shelf powder, and magnesium chip. The fabrication procedure involved a double-sintering process in a rich-Mg environment. A transition temperature T c of 39 K was observed. Samples with the equally high density and matching superconducting properties were obtained as well by a triple sintering process of the MgB2 powder directly from Alfa Aesar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superconducting MgB2 thick film has been prepared via hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition method on Al2O3 (0001) substrate by using B2H6 and magnesium ingot as raw materials reacted from 730 to 830°C for 40 min under 20 to 30 kPa. Its thickness is about 40 µm. The MgB2 thick film shows Tc (onset) = 39.0 K and Tc (0) = 37.2 K. X-ray diffraction pattern shows that the film grown along (101) direction has small amount of impurities of Mg and MgO. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy indicated that these impurities existed indeed and were Mg rich. The MgO film was formed on the surface of the MgB2 thick film to further protect the sample from oxidation. We presented a new mechanism for the formation of the thick film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MgB2 ultrathin films have potential to make sensitive superconducting devices such as superconducting single-photon detectors working at relatively high temperatures. We have grown epitaxial MgB2 films in thicknesses ranging from about 40 nm to 6 nm by using the hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition method and performed electrical transport measurements to study the thickness dependence of the superconducting critical temperature Tc. With reducing film thickness d, although a weak depression of the Tc has been observed, which could be attributed to an increase of disorder (interband impurity scattering) in the film, the Tc retains close to the bulk value of MgB2 (39 K), being about 35 K in the film of 6 nm thick. We show that this result, beneficial to the application of MgB2 ultrathin films and in accordance with recent theoretical calculations, is in contrast to previous findings in MgB2 films prepared by other methods such as co-evaporation and molecular-beam epitaxy, where a severe Tc suppression has been observed with Tc about one third of the bulk value in films of ∼5 nm thick. We discuss this apparent discrepancy in experiments and suggest that, towards the ultrathin limit, the different degrees of Tc suppression displayed in currently obtained MgB2 films by various techniques may arise from the different levels of disorder present in the film or different extents of proximity effect at the film surface or film-substrate interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thick MgB2 (magnesium diborate) films, ∼10 μm, with T c (onset) = 39.4 K and T c (zero) = 39.2 K have been successfully grown on a stainless steel substrate using a technique called hybrid physical-chemical deposition (HPCVD). The deposition rate is high, ∼6.7 nm/s. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicates that it is highly (101) and c-axis oriented. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images demonstrate that the film grown is in “island-mode”. The uniform superconducting phase in the film is shown by the M-T measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]