Te and SiC co-doped MgB2 obtained by an ex situ spark plasma sintering technique

Ex situ spark plasma sintering was used to obtain dense MgB2 co-doped with SiC and Te. The composition (MgB2) + (SiC)0.025 + Te0.01 shows critical current densities Jc(20 K, 5 T) of 3.5 × 102 A cm−2 and Jc(5 K, 9 T) of 2 × 103 A cm−2. These values are higher than for pristine samples or those separately doped with Te or SiC. They are also comparable at high fields and temperatures with the best reported values for the co-doped MgB2 bulks produced by conventional in situ methods.