Microstructures and critical currents in high-(Tc) superconductors

摘要

Microstructural defects are the primary determining factors for the values of critical-current densities in a high (Tc) superconductor after the electronic anisotropy along the a-b plane and the c-direction. A review is made to assess firstly what would be the maximum achievable critical-current density in YBa(sub 2)Cu(sub 3)O(sub 7) if nearly ideal pinning sites were introduced and secondly what types of pinning defects are currently introduced or exist in YBa(sub 2)Cu(sub 3)O(sub 7) and how effective are these in pinning vortices.