Reply to 'Comment on 'Processing and Microstructure of Single Grain U-Doped Y-Ba-Cu-O Superconductor''

摘要

The authors of the original article (2002 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 15 104-10) have the following remarks on the above Comment. The authors of the Comment claim that out original paper [1] states that the smaller particles present in the bulk microstructure are composed of refined Y-211 plus U. This is not the case. [1] states that the larger sized particles may be of the Y-211 phase, whereas the smaller sized particles are associated with another phase in the U-doped microstructure. These are labelled, somewhat unfortunately, as 'Y-211' and 'U, Y-21 1 compound' respectively, in figure 5 of [1]. This nomenclature was intended to indicate that the smaller particles are composed either of a uranium-containing compound or Y-211, and we regret any confusion. In [1] we further state that analysis of the chemical composition of the second phase particles is underway using EPMA. This analysis has subsequently confirmed that the bigger particles are of the Y-211 phase and that some of the smaller particles do contain uranium but with a chemical composition which is different to Y-211. In an earlier study [2], the chemical composition of the small spherical particles is reported as being Cu-free and containing uranium. We are in complete agreement with the authors of the Comment that some of these small particles contain uranium and are of a different composition to the Y-211 phase particles. We believe the source of confusion regarding this issue is attributable to the labelling in figure 5 of [1].