Highly textured PrxY1−xBa2Cu3O7−δ polycrystalline ceramics sintered in Ar atmosphere

The preparation route of pure as well as Pr-doped YBa2Cu3O7 ceramic materials is crucial to determine their superconducting properties. In this contribution, we focus on the structural effects of the gas atmosphere (O2 or Ar) during the conventional solid-state reaction method. Among our findings, we observed Ar-grown samples to be formed of large (5 μm in-plane size) highly c-axis textured domains, in contrast with their isotropic O2-grown analogous that are formed of small sub-micron size randomly oriented isotropic crystallites. The highly textured domains are affected by stacking disorder showing small amounts of random intercalates.