Preparation of YBCO bulk superconductor by platinum doped melt growth method

The authors have found a highly effective additive for the melt growth processings attaining high critical currents in YBCO superconductor. It is platinum and it behaves as an effective grain growth inhibitor for Y 2 BaCuO 5 (211) phase. Even less than 1 wt.% doping, 211 particles become a few micron in size and distribute homogeneously embedded in the large grown YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7- delta (123) grains. The sample shows large magnetic hysteresis and typical Jc value exceeds 18000 A/cm 2 at 77K and 1T. They have found that rhodium has a similar prominent effect.