STRUCTURAL AND MAGNETO CONDUCTIVITY STUDIES OF NIO/SMBA2CU3O7-Δ SUPERCONDUCTING COMPOSITE

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the effect of NiO nanoparticles' addition on the structure, superconductivity, and magneto conductivity for the SmBa2Cu3O7-δ phase. Composite nano/superconductor of (NiO)x/SmBa2Cu3O7-δ (0.00≤x≤0.12 wt.%) were prepared by conventional solid-state reaction technique and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The orthorhombic structure was maintained whereas the lattice parameters showed unsystematic variations with the NiO nanoparticles addition. The superconducting transition temperature Tc, determined from electrical resistivity measurements, showed an enhancement with x up to 0.04wt.% followed by a reduction with higher NiO additions. The Aslamazov–Larkin (AL) model was employed to analyze the magneto conductivity. The model allowed to determine the coherence lengths along c-axis ξc(0) and along ab plane ξab(0). Moreover, the anisotropy parameter Г increase with the increase of NiO nanoparticles addition.