Grain size dependence of the critical current density in YBa2Cu3Ox superconductors

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Abstract
The grain size dependence of the critical current density in bulk single-phase YBa2Cu3Ox ceramics was investigated. The grain size of the materials was changed to range approximately from 1.0 to 25 μm by changing the conditions of power processing and sintering, associated with an increase in the sintered density of the materials with increasing grain size. The critical current density has been found to exhibit a significant grain size dependence, changing from 880 A/cm2 to a value of 100 A/cm2 with a small increase in the average grain size from 1.2 to 2.0 μm. This seems to provide information about the nature of the weak link between superconducting grains which might govern the critical current density of the materials.