MICROWAVE HEATING: A NEW PROCESS FOR TEXTURING THE HIGH Tc SUPERCONDUCTOR YBa2Cu3O7-delta

Microwave heating appears as a very promising method, that can be applied to the melt texture growth (MTG) process for the texturing of the high Tc superconductor "YBaCuO". In the new MMTG (Microwave, Melt Teture Growth) process, the conventional furnace is replaced by a single mode microwave cavity and the "123" sample is placed orthogonally to the electrical field. A high thermal gradient acting as a texturing strength is produced, that allows well textured domains to be developed. One of the advantages of this technique will be the texture formation of long samples by a translation of the bars in the microwave cavity.