The Commercial Stainless Steel Tube Enveloping Technique for MgB2

TL;DR

This paper presents a method using a commercial stainless steel tube to synthesize MgB2 superconductor with high critical current density and good grain connectivity, demonstrating its potential for practical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a commercial stainless steel tube enveloping technique for MgB2 synthesis, achieving high critical current density and phase purity.

Findings

Transition temperature of 37.5 K with sharp transition within 1K

Critical current density exceeds 100,000 A/cm2 at 20 K in zero field

No secondary phases like MgO detected in X-ray spectra

Abstract

A commercial stainless steel tube was employed to synthesize MgB2. The specimen was prepared by a stoichiometric mixture of Mg and B. The specimen that had been enveloped in the commercial stainless steel tube was synthesized for 2 hours at 1193 K. X-ray spectra showed there were no second phases like MgO. The transition temperature of the specimen was 37.5 K with a sharp transition width within 1K. The specimen showed a good connection between grains and critical current density as calculated with the Bean model is more than 100,000 A/cm2 at 20 K and in zero field.