Study on effect of annealing conditions on structural, magnetic and superconducting properties of MgB{sub 2} bulk samples

• Published in: AIP conference proceedings 2014-04, Vol.1591 (1)
• Main Authors: Phaneendra, Konduru, Asokan, K., Kanjilal, D., Awana, V. P. S., Sastry, S. Sreehari
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: AGGLOMERATION; ANNEALING; ARGON; CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; CRITICAL CURRENT; CURRENT DENSITY; HEXAGONAL LATTICES; MAGNESIUM; MAGNESIUM BORIDES; MAGNETIC FIELDS; MAGNETIZATION; MATERIALS SCIENCE; POWDERS; SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY; SOLIDS; SPACE GROUPS; SUPERCONDUCTORS; X-RAY DIFFRACTION
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4873063

Effect of annealing conditions on structural, magnetic and superconducting properties of Magnesium Diboride (MgB{sub 2}) bulk superconductor samples prepared by solid state route method are compared. The samples are made by taking Magnesium and Boron powders in stoichiometric ratio, grounded well and pelletized at pressure of about 10Tonnes. These pellets are annealed in both Argon and vacuum environment separately up to 800°c for two hours. Both the samples show clear superconducting transition at Tc ∼ 38 k. This is further conformed by AC/DC magnetization (M-T), Resistivity [ρ (T, H)] measurements under magnetic field up to 14 Tesla as well. Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction of both samples conformed the MgB{sub 2} phase formation with P6/mmm space group symmetry. Scanning Electron Microscopy images of the surface revile more agglomeration of grains in case of Argon annealed samples. This result in more critical current density (J{sub c}) of Argon annealed samples than vacuum annealed one calculated from Bean's critical state model. This high Jc is explained in terms of more inter grain connectivity for Argon annealed sample than vacuum annealed sample.