National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

We report unusual effect of channeled magnetic flux motion in YBa2Cu3O7-delta/PrBa2Cu3O7-delta superlattices grown by pulsed laser deposition. Magneto-optical imaging reveals that flux moves along a set of parallel and perpendicular lines, while optical microscopy does not show any features on the surface that may be linked to this effect. In contrast, scanning electron microscopy registers sub-micron fractures in the superlattices corresponding to these flux lines, but the magnetic flux channels are much wider than the width of these fractures. To further clarify the origin of flux channels, electrical transport measurements on the superlattices have been performed. Their current-voltage characteristics reveal the presence of distinctive branches related to the flux motion along the selective channels, following which magnetic flux crosses sample in a shortest and least resistive way. The application of very large current overheated the superlattice along these channels, evaporating superconducting material and exposing, wider than in the superconductor, fractures in the substrate. It is concluded that motion of flux in the channels is controlled not only by the presence of nano-fractures in YBa2Cu3O7-delta/PrBa2Cu3O7_delta, but also by stress developed in the superconducting material due to the fracturing of the substrate.

Green compacts of B4C or B4C added with 1 vol% graphite were infiltrated with molten Si and subsequently were subject of processing by floating zone partial re-melting (FZPR). In FZPR only the low temperature fusible component, in this case Si, is melted. A fully dense B4C-based ceramic is obtained. It contains free-Si, SiC and B4C. In the center of the FZPR ceramic without graphite addition, the amount of Si is decreased when compared to the infiltrated material. Some impurity elements such as Al, Fe, or Ti detected in the raw B4C powder are preferentially gathered at the edges of the sample. In the sample added with graphite, formation of a high amount of SiC in the infiltrated material hinders Si shift from the center to the edges. The pulling rate and the particle size of the B4C raw powders are also important. It is recognized that sintering of powders larger than 10-20 gm is usually difficult: our approach is demonstrated to be suitable for processing of B4C powders with a very different particle size, from 10 to 250 gm. The FZPR ceramic had a Vickers hardness of 9-38 GPa depending on location of the indentation imprint and on the sample. A tensile strength of 114-188 MPa that is up to about 2-3 times higher than for the infiltrated material was recorded. Work indicates that the proposed processing approach offers extended control possibilities towards fabrication of new composite materials not available by traditional technologies.

Magnetic nanoparticles embedded in the active layer of the Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) significantly increases the electroluminescence and the charge transport without influencing the transparency of these devices. A brief comparison was done in order to identify which parameter influences these properties, by comparing the CoFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles with CoFe2 metallic magnetic nanoparticles, the latter one being obtained by thermal reduction in hydrogen of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles. CoFe2 have shown a better efficiency of the metallic nanoparticles where probably the main advantage is the higher magnetization property instead of the coercive field. Concerning the charge transport across the OLEDs, these nanoparticles reduce the electron injection, acting as filling traps, which directly increases the electroluminescence and the current at the same voltage.

Fabrication methods are important way to improve structural and superconducting properties of MgB2 such as critical current, magnetic levitation force (MLF) and magnetic field trapping capability. Although the graded fabrication technique has been used for single-grain bulk YBCO superconductor to improve critical current and bulk superconducting properties, similar technique as regional doping has not been used for bulk MgB2, until now. In this study, nanoparticle silver doping was carried out in to the bulk MgTi0.06B2 superconductor by using in-situ solid state reaction and partial graded (regional) doping method together, to improve the radius independent uniform bulk current density and the magnetic levitation force as well as the structural properties of the MgB2 bulk superconductors. Both the J(c)(0) self-field critical current and F-p (mu H-0) pinning force density values enhanced in comparison with the inner region values, when the nanoparticle Ag doping is carried out in to the outer section of the sample. Addition to the enhancement of the structural and the micro electromagnetic properties as J(c)(0) and Fp (mu H-0), our study also focused on the improved of the bulk Jc and the radius of shielding current loop r, to improve bulk electromagnetic properties as the levitation force. It is seen that the structural properties enhanced and both the vertical levitation force and the lateral guidance force value increased with Ag doping to the outer section of MgTi0.06B2 sample. On the other hand, the increasing ratio of the lateral guidance force of 19.7% and the vertical levitation force of 10.8% of the sample with 3 wt% Ag-doped than the undoped one points out that the regional doping method to the outer section is very suitable for guidance force applications, which is important in the magnetic bearing application such as Maglev and magnetic energy storage systems. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The exhaust of power and particles is regarded as a major challenge in view of the design of a magnetic confinement nuclear fusion demonstration power plant (DEMO). In such a reactor, highly loaded plasma facing components (PFCs), like the divertor targets, have to withstand both severe heat flux loads and considerable neutron irradiation. Existing divertor target designs make use of monolithic tungsten (W) and copper (Cu) material grades that are combined in a PFC. Such an approach, however, bears engineering difficulties as W and Cu are materials with inherently different thermomechanical properties and their optimum operating temperature windows do not overlap. Against this background, W Cu composite materials are promising candidates regarding the application to the heat sink of highly loaded PFCs. The present contribution summarises recent results regarding the manufacturing and characterisation of such W Cu composite materials produced by means of liquid Cu melt infiltration of open porous W preforms. On the one hand, this includes composites manufactured by infiltrating powder metallurgically produced W skeletons. On the other hand, W Cu composites based on textile technologically produced fibrous reinforcement preforms are discussed. (C) 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

For DEMO fusion reactor an expected heat flux of about 10MW/m(2) should be extracted by the divertor which will have, most likely, an armour part made of W and a following heat sink part made of Cu, or ODS Cu alloy. Unfortunately, for these materials the optimum operating temperature windows do not overlap. Thermal barrier materials are interface materials included in such components, aiming to keep the temperatures of both armour and heat sink parts in the corresponding operating windows, and to mitigate the effects of their different thermomechanical properties. Here we propose a simple spark plasma sintering route to create Cu-based composites with a high content (10-40 vol%) of various dispersed materials (Al or Y oxides, C, SiC), allowing a fine tuning of the content and a large pool of predefined shapes and dimensions. The resulting specimens can be further joined to armour and heatsink components via a similar electrical field assisted technology. Micro-structural and thermal properties are investigated for these materials allowing to select the most suited materials in view of their thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficients. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Full density Cu-1%Y and Cu-0.8%Y alloys have been produced by different powder metallurgy routes and subsequent hot isostatic pressing. Some of the alloys have been subjected to equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) via B-c route up to 8 passes. ECAP deformation homogenizes and refines the microstructure up to attaining a sub-micron grain structure. Thermal properties have been characterized by the laser flash method in the temperature range 373-773 K. The ECAP process, irrespective of the production route, enhanced the thermal conductivity to values similar to those for CuCrZr (ITER grade). The linear thermal expansion coefficient was temperature independent for all materials. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We have developed a thin film structure with a maximum magnetoresistance effect (MRE) at room temperature, which is one of the operating requirements for many applications. It is shown that La0.67Ba0.33Ti0.02Mn0.98O3 epilayers obtained by pulsed laser deposition onto (001) SrTiO3 single crystal substrates exhibit the highest MRE, Delta R/R(H) approximate to 150% or Delta R/R(0) approximate to 60% under 5 T, at 300 K, a temperature near to the corresponding Curie temperature (T-C). Both doping with a tiny amount of titanium and induced stress due to lattice mismatch between the thin film and the substrate contribute to a decrease in T-C as compared to the pristine compound and therefore to the decrease in the temperature where the highest MRE is recorded. Published by AIP Publishing.

Cobalt ferrite (CF) powder was synthesized by solid state reaction method at two different calcination temperatures (1120 K and 1320 K) then milled in two steps, gradually reducing the milling media size. The first milling step results in CF nanoparticles with crystallite size of 33 nm showing fairly high coercivity (3.7 kOe), > 5 times higher than the non-milled material (0.7 kOe). The high coercivity was correlated to the crystallite size close to the single-domain limit, and to the strain increase up to 2.1%. This value of strain is the highest ever reported in literature for the CF and brings to the highest figure of merit for permanent magnets, (BH)(max)= 2.16 MGOe. After the second milling step the powder displays particle size of 9 nm, release of strain (epsilon = 1.2%), coercivity reduction that approaches 250 Oe and decrease of the deblocking temperature from 421 K to 317 K. The large tunability obtained by multi-step milling allows to use CF in different applications. In particular, the milled CF powder characterized by high microstrain is a good candidate for the realization of rare-earth-free permanent magnets (at least on the basis of the (BH)(max) product). For the first time, a correlation between the spin-canting angle and the degree of inversion, the crystallite size and the microstrain is presented and discussed. [GRAPHICS] .

We present an investigation consisting of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) based cryogenic temperature sensors, capable of measuring temperatures in the range of 2-77 K. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) due to their extremely small size, superior thermal and electrical properties have suggested that it is possible to create devices that will meet necessary requirements for miniaturization and better performance, by comparison to temperature sensors currently available on the market. Starting from SWCNTs, as starting material, a resistive structure was designed. Employing dropcast method, the carbon nanotubes were deposited over pairs of gold electrodes and in between the structure electrodes from a solution. The procedure was followed by an alignment process between the electrodes using a dielectrophoretic method. Two sensor structures were tested in cryogenic field down to 2 K, and the resistance was measured using a standard four-point method. The measurement results suggest that, at temperatures below 20 K, the temperature coefficient of resistance average for sensor 1 is 1.473%/K and for sensor 2 is 0.365%/K. From the experimental data, it can be concluded that the dependence of electrical resistance versus temperature can be approximated by an exponential equation and, correspondingly, a set of coefficients are calculated. It is further concluded that the proposed approach described here offers several advantages, which can be employed in the fabrication of a microsensors for cryogenic applications.