Enhanced flux pinning properties of Ga2O3: YBCO nanocomposite superconductor

The effect of adding various concentrations (0.1-0.5 wt%) of Ga2O3 nanorods (NRs) on structural, electrical, magnetic, and flux pinning properties of the YBa2Cu O7-delta (YBCO) superconductor is studied. The critical current density (J(c)) and flux pinning force (F-p) values are found to enhance significantly, and the nanocomposite sample with x = 0.2 wt% shows the maximum enhancement among the samples under study. At 4 K, the maximum value of J(c) (J(cmax)) and F-p (F-pmax) for the 0.2 wt% sample are similar to 2.87 and 3 times higher and at 65 K, these increments are similar to 3.54 and 3.4 times, as compared to pure YBCO respectively. Moreover, the J(c) value for the composite samples has a lower decay with increasing temperature than the pure YBCO samples. The enhanced superconducting properties of the xGa(2)O(3): YBCO can be attributed to the lattice defects induced by Ga2O3 NRs, which act as effective pinning centers.