Publication Type
Journal
Journal Name
Physical Review B
Publication Date
Page Number
140503
Volume
81
Issue
14
Abstract
We report rare earth barium tantalates, Ba2RETaO6 (BRETO, RE = rare earth
elements) as a new class of additives for superior flux-pinning in YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO)
films. BRETO compounds have excellent chemical inertness to and large lattice
mismatch with YBCO. This results in phase separation and strain minimization driven
self-assembly of BRETO nanocolumns within YBCO films. YBCO+4 vol% Ba2GdTaO6
films show similar Tc to that of an un-doped film of ~ 88.3 K, a higher self-field Jc of 3.8
MA/cm2 at 77 K, and significantly improved in-field Jc higher by a factor of 1.5-6 over
entire magnetic field and angular ranges.
