Chemical Preparation of Powders and Films for High Temperature Superconductors

Abstract

ABSTRACTA precipitation process has been developed to prepare precursor powders which can be calcined and sintered to form high critical temperature superconductors such as YBa2Cu3O7−x. Precursor powders are prepared using a continuous precipitation system in which a solution containing highly soluble salts of the desired metal cations is rapidly and completely mixed with a solution containing precipitating anions such as hydroxide and carbonate ions. The resulting amorphous powder can be calcined to form sub-micron particles of desired superconducting phases which are useful in preparing inks for the ink-jet printing of superconducting interconnects. The powders can be redissolved in organic solvents to form solutions which can be used in spin or dip coating substrates with thin superconducting films. Finally, the powders have been used to prepare bulk ceramics which exhibit the highest reported critical currents of any chem-prep ceramics. Bulk samples prepared from chloride doped precursors exhibit large, oriented grains and extensive flux pinning.