MgB 2 superconductors with abnormally improved Jc sintered after autoxidation of milled original powders

Abstract

An autoxidation treatment of short-time milled original powders was introduced for the synthesis of MgB2 superconductors and the critical current density Jc of the sintered MgB2 bulks was measured. It is unusually found that the undoped MgB2 bulks sintered with those autoxided milled original powder exhibit abnormally excellent Jc (above 1×104 A cm−2 even at 3.5 T, 20 K). Combined with the investigation of sintering process, it was found that the autoxidation treatment of the milled powders affects the subsequent sintering process dramatically and finally leads to the formation of MgB2 nanocrystalline with lots of dislocation and self-generated MgO nanoinclusions embedded in them. This unique microstructure brought up a significant improvement of Jc at high fields. Besides, the formation mechanism of this unique microstructure during the sintering process was also discussed in detail. It suggested that the MgO preformed by the reaction between Mg and B2O3 in the interface between Mg particles and B particles might serve as nuclei for the heterogeneous nucleation of the MgB2 phase and finally be included in the MgB2 grains as they grew up. The present method provides possible windows for the development of practical MgB2 superconductors without adopting expensive nanodopants.