Characterization of the superconductor-multiferroic type materials based on YBa2Cu3O7-δYMnO3 composites

Abstract The effect of YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7- δ (YBCO) inoculated with a small amount of magnetoelectric YMnO 3 (YMO) is presented. The particulate composites YBCO‒ x %YMO ( x  = 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 and 5.00 wt%) were investigated for microstructural and physicochemical properties. The YBCO precursor exhibits two characteristic peaks of crystallite sizes around 50 μm and 300 μm after the second calcining process. The vibrational spectra shows a small deterioration of the superconducting state of YBCO−YMO ceramics across the YMO content, which is due to the vanishing of the orthorhombic phase seen as a O(4) band moves towards the higher wave numbers on the Raman scale. From the magnetic measurements one can find that a small addition of YMO (around 1.00 wt%) does not significantly change the superconducting properties of YBCO crystallites, and most of the composites exhibit critical temperature T c close to 92 K. The direct magneto-resistance measurements at 77 K show critical current densities ( J c ) of 205 A cm −2 for YBCO−0.25%YMO and 35 A cm −2 for YBCO−5.00%YMO, respectively.