Enhanced superconducting properties of double-chain based superconductor Pr$_{2}$Ba$_{4}$Cu$_{7}$O$_{15-\delta}$ synthesized by citrate pyrolysis technique

TL;DR

This study demonstrates enhanced superconducting properties in Pr$_{2}$Ba$_{4}$Cu$_{7}$O$_{15-\,delta}$ synthesized via citrate pyrolysis, showing increased critical temperature, higher residual resistivity ratios, and bulk superconductivity with improved grain connectivity.

Contribution

The paper introduces a citrate pyrolysis synthesis method that improves the superconducting properties and bulk phase quality of Pr$_{2}$Ba$_{4}$Cu$_{7}$O$_{15-\,delta}$ compared to previous techniques.

Findings

Superconducting transition temperature $T_c$=22-24 K.

Residual resistivity ratios increased to 10-12.

Estimated upper critical magnetic field about 35 T.

Abstract

We report the enhanced superconducting properties of double-chain based superconductor Pr$_{2}$Ba$_{4}$Cu$_{7}$O$_{15-\delta}$ synthesized by the citrate pyrolysis technique. %In spite of the polycrystalline bulk samples, we obtained the higher residual resistivity ratios (10-12). The reduction heat treatment in vacuum results in the appearance of superconducting state with $T_\mathrm{c}$=22-24 K, accompanied by the higher residual resistivity ratios. The superconducting volume fractions are estimated from the ZFC data to be 50$\sim55\%$, indicating the bulk superconductivity. We evaluate from the magneto-transport data the temperature dependence of the superconducting critical field, to establish the superconducting phase diagram. The upper critical magnetic field is estimated to be about 35 T at low temperatures from the resistive transition data using the Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg formula. The Hall coefficient $R_{H}$ of the 48-h-reduced superconducting sample is determined to be -0.5$\times10^{-3}$ cm$^{3}$/C at 30 K, suggesting higher electron concentration. These findings have a close relationship with homogeneous distributions of the superconducting grains and improved weak links between their superconducting grains in the present synthesis process.