Growth of bulk YBa2Cu3O7- delta single crystals and their properties

The effects of the charge composition, temperature-time conditions, value and direction of temperature gradients in a melt on the crystallization of bulk YBa2Cu3O7- delta single crystals have been studied. The morphology, chemical composition, structural, magnetic and resistive properties of these crystals have been characterized. The width of a metastable zone of YBCO is found to be about 0.8 K. At overcooling less than 0.8 K a bulk crystal of polyhedral type grows on a seed. At overcooling greater than 0.8 K a spontaneous crystallization takes place and crystals in the form of thin plates are produced. Orientation figures are defined for as-grown YBCO faces by a chemical etching method. The distribution of the main impurity (Al) is shown to be homogeneous in the volume of the growing crystal (the homogeneity level is 3%), its concentration varying from 0.05 to 0.11 at/FU in different runs. The absence of the block structure in (001) planes of the YBCO single crystal is established using X-ray topography. The contrast unevenness on the (100) topogram indicates that a certain amount of the block structure occurs on (100) planes, comparable with the resolution of the method of 0.02 degrees . The lattice parameters and the M(T) and rho (T) dependences are measured before and after the thermal treatment of crystals.

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