• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.35-40
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• 2022

To fabricate large grain YBCO bulk superconductors by melt process, Sm123 single crystal with a high melting point are mostly used as seeds. However, it also uses Y123 film deposited on MgO single crystal substrate. This study investigated the growth behavior of the Y123 grain during a melt process when single grain YBCO bulk was used as a seed. Single grain Y123 bulk was grown when the seed size was small. When the seed size was relatively large, multiple grains were grown but the grains were still large. Y123 seed crystal was completely decomposed during high temperature anneal at 1040℃ and new Y123 crystals were nucleated during a slow cooling stage below a peritectic temperature. Thereafter, newly formed Y123 crystals from the seed area are thought to grow into the Y1.8 powder compact. The crystallographic orientations of newly nucleated Y123 grains are independent of the crystallographic orientation of Y123 seed. It is thought that the crystallographic orientation of newly nucleated Y123 crystal can be controlled by using Y211-free Y123 single crystal as a seed of homo-seeding melt growth.