Effect of Ferrimagnetic Cr2S3 on AC Susceptibility and Superconducting Properties of YBa2Cu3O7-

Superconductivity and magnetism are mutually exclusive phenomena. This work was carried out to investigate the effect of ferrimagnetic Cr2S3 addition on YBa2Cu3O7- superconductor. The solid-state reaction method was used to prepare YBa2Cu3O7- (Cr2S3)(x) (x =0 to 0.3 wt%). The samples were characterized by using the four-probe method to measure the electrical resistivity and AC susceptibility to measure the critical temperature, T-c and critical current density at the peak temperature T-p of the complex susceptibility, J(c)(T-p). The x-ray diffraction (XRD) method was used to determine the phase and structure of the sample. Field emission electron microscopy (FESEM) was used to determine the microstructure. The x =0.05 sample showed the highest onset transition temperature, Tc-onset (93 K), zero-resistance temperature, Tc-zero (89 K), T-c (93 K) and T-p (86 K). Addition of Cr2S3 did not affect the orthorhombic structure. However, the addition of Cr2S3 for x 0.10 showed some impurity peaks in the XRD patterns. The grain size decreased with Cr2S3 addition. Cr2S3 improved the intergrain coupling and flux pinning as indicated by the increase in J(c)(T-p) and T-p. These results are compared with other magnetic and non-magnetic materials addition to YBa2Cu3O7-.