National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

A Mossbauer spectroscopy study of the intermetallics RE6Fe14-xMx where RE=Nd or Pr, M=Ga or Al and x=1 or 2 was undertaken. A comparative analysis of the Mossbauer spectra showed that the second Al or Ga atom substitutes preferentially for the Fe atoms located at the 161 sites. The reduction of the hyperfine fields in Nd6Fe12M2, as compared with Nd6Fe13M, mainly at the 16k, 161, and 161(2) and the corresponding decrease of the average Fe moment gives rise to a total magnetic moment of 41 mu(B) per formula unit in excellent agreement with previous saturation magnetisation measurements.

The current-voltage characteristics of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10/Ag multifilamentary tapes were measured at different temperatures close to the critical temperature and in different applied magnetic fields up to 1000 Oe. The data were interpreted in terms of thermally activated flux creep by using an intermediate phenomenological model that takes into account the collective pinning. Temperature and field dependences of the pinning potential and of the collective pinning exponent were determined through numerical analysis.

Electron spin resonance investigations on polyethylene-polyaniline blends are reported. The temperature dependence of resonance line parameters, in the temperature range 270-400 K is investigated in detail.

We measured the temperature dependence of the ac susceptibility in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystals. The penetration field H* was determined, at different temperatures, from the field dependence of chi '' in the framework of the critical state model. Using a very simple formula, we estimated the values of the critical current density near T-c, which are consistent with the usually reported data for this material.

Current-voltage characteristics of multifilamentary Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10/Ag tapes (short samples) produced by the 'powder in tube' technique were measured at different temperatures close to the mean-field critical temperature, and in zero applied magnetic field. After performing the required corrections due to the current flowing in the silver matrix, the I-V curves were interpreted in terms of current-induced unbinding of the thermally created vortex-antivortex pairs. Two possible mechanisms for appearance of a finite critical current in zero applied magnetic field are discussed: the Jensen-Minnhagen quasi-two-dimensional (2D) approach, that takes into account the interlayer Josephson coupling, and a model of size limitation of vortex fluctuations. From our analysis, it seems that the latter model is more suitable for this kind of superconducting material, due probably to an accentuated intrinsic anisotropy.

The correlation between the structure, chemical composition, electrical and magnetic properties of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta single crystals is presented. As revealed by SEM measurements, the small samples (approximately 1 mm x 1 mm x 0.2 mm) are stacks of thin plates (1-2 mu m). Microcompositional measurements (energy dispersive spectroscopy) show the Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta (2212)-phase and a small quantity of residual phases enriched in bismuth and strontium and calcium-deficient. Magnetically modulated microwave absorption measurements (MAMMA) lead to a value for the anisotropy of the upper critical field of about 7, which is more than twice the reported value for YBa2Cu3O7-delta single crystals (also determined from MAMMA responses). The plot of the resistance versus temperature suggests that only the first 10-20 plates from the surface of the sample have a contribution to the sample conductivity. The imaginary part, chi'', of the magnetic susceptibility of our samples shows three peaks.

The effect of intermediate grounding and sintering environment (air or sintered powder) on the superconducting characteristics of Bi(Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O hulk ceramics obtained by spray-frozen freeze drying technique was investigated by X-ray diffraction, electric and magnetic measurements. Intermediate grounding leads to higher scattering coefficients of the superconducting characteristics. This result does not depend on sintering environment. Improved results are obtained when sintering is performed by immersing pellets "in powder" rather than placing them "on powder". The powder used as sintering environment was pyrolized precursor powder calcinated in air for 100 h. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Superconducting samples of the Bi(Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O system have been irradiated in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to investigate the effect of a relative high fluence of electrons with 75 and 100 keV energy on the microstructure of the material. The diffraction pattern images show a dramatic change from very uniform lattice spots at ab crystalline planes to a circular pattern corresponding to damage and breaking of the materials in very small crystallites.

The low-voltage-level current-voltage characteristics of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+x tapes and bulk samples with preferential crystallite orientation were measured in applied magnetic fields both parallel and perpendicular to the samples' surfaces. The data were interpreted within the framework of the collective pinning model. The collective pinning exponent alpha changes from approximate to 1 to approximate to 0.5 (close to T-c), while in the case of unoriented samples it is constant (and equal to the theoretical value 1/2) as shown in an earlier paper. We suggest that this temperature dependence of alpha is due to the change of the dimensionality of the intragranular vortices.

The crystallization kinetics of the amorphous alloy Fe77Gd3B20 were examined under isothermal flash annealing conditions both in air and in a vacuum. Magnetic measurements were used to determine the reaction order (n) and activation energy (E(a)), and Mossbauer spectroscopy (MS) was used to identify some resulting crystalline phases.