Effect of Ta2O5 addition on the texture of the Y123 superconductor

In this work we present a systematic study of the Ta influence on the texture of Y123 superconducting phase. The differential thermal analysis (DTA) results show a systematic decreasing of the peritectic temperature, from 1020 °C for Y123 without Ta doping to approximately 950 °C for Y0.92Ta0.08Ba2Cu3Oy composition. The excellent texture reached by samples is confirmed through X-ray diffraction (θ/2θ) which reveals only (0 0 l) reflections, consistent with the rocking curve measurement in which FWHM ∼0.2°. The microstructures observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicate segregation of an additional phase. The energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) revealed that this phase has the Y0.5Ta0.5BaO3 stoichiometry.