Effect of low-temperature annealing on the magnetization curve of YBa2Cu3O6 + x ceramics

The effect of low-temperature annealing on the magnetization curve of YBa2Cu3O6 + x ceramics in the superconducting state (x ≈ 0.9) is investigated. When the annealing time is fairly long, the field dependence of magnetic moment M exhibits a feature in the form of a plateau, where the value of M remains almost constant. The evolution of this feature in the magnetization curves of annealed samples with annealing time and temperature is studied. It is assumed that low-temperature annealing gives rise to metastable ferromagnetic clusters in YBa2Cu3O6 + x ceramics, the contribution of which to the magnetic moment accounts for the feature in the magnetization curves of the annealed samples.