Introducing Nanosized Pinning Centers Into Bulk Gd–Ba–Cu–O by Infiltration Method

Chemical doping is considered as an economic and effective method to enhance the flux pinning properties of high-temperature superconducting materials. However, it is difficult to realize a large doping amount in textured grown bulk superconductors since the doped particles are prone to accumulate and affect the melt-textured growth of the bulk superconductors. In the present work, we introduced nanosized ZrO₂ particles into the Gd-Ba-Cu-O samples through the external liquid source by infiltration method. A large doping amount of ZrO₂ particles up to 20 mol% has been realized in finely grown Gd-Ba-Cu- O samples. Improvement in the trapped field has been found for low-level doped samples. The localized microstructure and distribution of the doped particles have been observed by scanning electron microscopy and discussed in this paper.