Effect of sintering time and temperature on superconducting properties of Chevrel phase wires made with micron-sized powder
Résumé
A systematic study of inductively measured Tc, transport critical current density (Jc) and the field (Bmax) at which pinning force density is maximum has been made on newly developed Chevrel phase superconducting (CPS) wires. At fixed sintering temperatures, Bmax (4.2 K) increases monotonically to values ≥ 0.16 Bc2 with increasing sintering times (ts). Simultaneously, the deterioration of Jc (4.2 K, 7.5 T) values and the inductive transition show a degradation of the CPS core. The emerging picture lends support to the evolution of well comnected paths in a granular CPS core, however, limited by degradation due to Pb/ S losses.