SmBa2Cu3O6.5 seed fabrication for seeded peritectic solidification of YBa2Cu3O7-δ

The availability of high quality SmBa2Cu3O6.5 seeds of known orientation is essential for the fabrication of a large grain YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) superconductor via a seeded peritectic solidification technique. The suitable seed must have a close lattice parameter match to YBCO and a relatively high melting temperature. We report a melt texturing process for the fabrication of SmBa2Cu3O7-delta (Sm-123) seeds using SrTiO3 to control grain nucleation. The physical and structural properties of the seeds were confirmed by differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Seeds prepared in this study were used to grow large single grain YBCO superconductors of up to 2 cm in diameter.