Other

The Boeing Company

University of Cambridge

David Anthony Cardwell

Nadendla Hari Babu

Yun-Hua Shi

Colin David Tarrant

Kelvin Robert Schneider

A seed crystal for the fabrication of a superconductor is grown from a rare-earth oxide having the basic formula XZBaCuO, X comprising at least one rare-earth element and Z being a dopant which raises the peritectic decomposition temperature (T) of the oxide. In a preferred embodiment, the dopant is Mg. Use of this rare-earth oxide material for seed crystals increases the temperature at which cold-seeding can be performed and thus enables the growth of a wider range of bulk superconductor materials by this process.

Superconductor fabrication

A seed crystal for the fabrication of a superconductor is grown from a rare-earth oxide having the basic formula XZBaCuO, X comprising at least one rare-earth element and Z being a dopant which raises the peritectic decomposition temperature (T) of the oxide. In a preferred embodiment, the dopant is Mg. Use of this rare-earth oxide material for seed crystals increases the temperature at which cold-seeding can be performed and thus enables the growth of a wider range of hulk superconductor materials by this process.

The invention provides a method of manufacturing a doped i X&#x2014;Ba&#x2014;Cu&#x2014;O material, the method comprising the steps of: a) mixing an X&#x2014;Ba&#x2014;L&#x2014;O or X&#x2014;Ba&#x2014;Cu&#x2014;L&#x2014;O material with an X&#x2014;1 Ba&#x2014;Cu&#x2014;O material; and b) crystallising the mixture; 1 wherein each X is independently selected from a rare earth (Group IIIB) element, yttrium, a combination of rare earth elements, or a combination of yttrium and a rare earth element; and L is selected from U, Nb, Ta, Mo, W, Zr, Hf, Ag, Pt, Ru and Sn. The invention further provides a doped material manufactured by the method of the invention.

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Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

David Anthony Cardwell