Fluctuation induced conductivity and pseudogap state studies of Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ superconductor added with ZnO nanoparticles

The major limitations of the Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+delta superconductor are weak flux pinning capability and weak inter-grains coupling that lead to a low critical current density and low critical magnetic field which impedes the suppleness of this material towards practical applications. The addition of nanoscales impurities can create artificial pining centers that may improve flux pinning capability and intergranular coupling. In this work, the influences of ZnO nanoparticles on the superconducting parameters and pseudogap properties of the Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+delta superconductor are investigated using fluctuation induced conductivity analyses. Results demonstrate that the ZnO nanoparticles addition improves the formation of the Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+delta phase significantly. Various superconducting parameters include coherence length along c-axis (xi(c)(0)), penetration depth (lambda(pd)(0)), Fermi velocity (v(F)), Fermi energy (E-F), lower and upper critical magnetic fields (B-c1(0) and B-c2(0) respectively) and critical current density (J(c)(0)), are estimated for samples with different amounts of ZnO nanoparticles. It is found that the values of the B-c1(0), B-c2(0), and J(c)(0) are improved significantly in the 0.2 wt% ZnO added sample in comparison to the ZnO-free sample. The magnitude and temperature dependence of the pseudogap Delta*(T) is calculated using the local pairs model. The obtained values of T-pair, the temperature at which local pairs are transformed from strongly coupled bosons into the fluctuating Cooper pairs, increases as the added ZnO nanoparticles concentration enhances up to 0.2 wt%. Also, the estimated values for the superconducting gap at T=0 K (Delta(0)) are decreased from about 26 meV in ZnO-free sample to about 22 meV in 0.2 wt% ZnO added sample and then increases for higher values of additive.

Automated summary

The addition of ZnO nanoparticles significantly improves the superconducting properties and pseudogap characteristics of the Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+delta superconductor. The critical magnetic fields and critical current densities are significantly enhanced with the addition of 0.2 wt% ZnO, while the superconducting gap at T=0 K decreases slightly before increasing with higher concentrations of ZnO.