An investigation of magnetoresistivity properties of an Y3Ba5Cu8Oy bulk superconductor

A bulk ceramic superconducting sample was fabricated using the standard solid state reaction (SSR) method in the stoichiometric ratio of Y:Ba:Cu:O (3:5:8). The electrical and microstructural properties of the sample were investigated by means of magnetoresistivity (R-T) and micrograph measurements, respectively. Critical temperatures (Tc) such as onset and offset, irreversibility magnetic field (Hirr), upper critical magnetic field (Hc2), and activation energy (U0) were determined from the R-T under various values of applied magnetic field. The findings obtained were compared with a standard Y:Ba:Cu:O(1:2:3) superconducting sample fabricated by the SSR method. Tconset was 95.83 K for the Y358 sample and 94.86 K for the Y123 sample without the magnetic field. Tcoffset decreased from 92.87 to 74.08 K for the Y358 sample and from 82.83 to 32.44 K for the Y123 sample when the magnetic field ranged from 0 to 5 T. U0 values of Y358 and Y123 samples without the magnetic field were respectively 1.1486 and 0.3166 eV. These results indicate that the Y358 sample could provide significant benefits for high temperature superconductivity applications in future.