Growth of superconducting Pb0.5Sr2.5Y0.5Ca0.5Cu2Oy single crystals from charges containing silver

Single crystals of Pb(0.5)Sq(2.5)Y(0.5)Ca(0.5)Cu(2)O(y) have been grown by a self-flux technique with excess of CuO and adding 10% (by wt) of AgNO3 to the starting charge. The grown crystals exhibited tetragonal structure having lattice parameters a = 3.813 Angstrom and c = 11.785 Angstrom. The crystals are found to undergo a metal to superconductor transition at 50 K. Crystals grown without any silver addition did not shown any transition to the superconducting down to 15 K. These results show that the addition of silver facilitates the oxygenation of crystals.