Electrical transport anisotropy of uniaxial polycrystalline samples and the effective medium approximation: An application to HTS

In this paper we have applied the effective medium approximation (EMA) to a polycrystalline sample made up of uniaxial crystallites with similar behavior to the high critical temperature superconductors (HTS) at the normal state (σab ≫ σc). As a result the dependence of the anisotropy parameter at the level of the sample, μ=σx/σz, on orientation probability of the grains' a-axes along a certain preferential direction, γxa is obtained. The intrinsic and shape anisotropy parameters of the crystallites constitute input data. In addition, the dependence of the orientation factor, f, which has been introduced in current models on the transport properties of HTS, is calculated as a function of γxa. These results offer a tool to interpret electrical transport measurements at normal state in granular uniaxial superconducting materials with certain texture degree, by means of the correlation between microstructure and electrical transport properties. Moreover, the comparison between the model and some experimental data suggests the presence of intragranular planar defects in the polycrystalline superconductors. They may affect the measurement of paracoherent resistivity and consequently the determination of f mainly in Bi based samples.