The peak effect in bulk Y-Ba-Cu-O superconductor with CeO2 doping by the infiltration growth method

In this study, large single grain Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) superconductors with CeO2 addition were fabricated by the infiltration and growth (IG) technique. It is noticeable that the CeO2 doped IG-YBCO sample showed a superior critical current density J(c)(H, T) with a peak effect. The J(c) (3 T, 65 K) of the IG-YBCO sample with CeO2 addition reached 10(5) A cm(-2), which was two times higher than that of the CeO2 doped top-seeded melt texture (TSMT)-YBCO sample. Microstructure analysis indicated that the concentration of Sm in the CeO2 doped IG-YBCO sample was 0.2 mol%. The Sm which dissolved from the SmBCO seed diffused into the bulk to form compositional fluctuations of (Y, Sm)BCO and was correlated to the effective pinning in high field regions (or peak effect) to improve the J(c)(H, T) in high fields. In addition, the maximum trapped field value of 0.23 T and trapped field profile of the CeO2 doped sample grown by IG are larger than that of 0.13 T grown by TSMT using the same diameter of precursor pellets.