Effect Y substitution on the microstructure, transport and magnetic proprieties of Bi₂Sr₂Ca₁Cu₂O_8+δ superconducting ceramics

In high Tc superconductors (HTSC) the activation energy gives information about the pinning properties of a sample under applied magnetic field. Pinning of vortices determines the critical current density Jc which is of great importance for practical applications of HTSC. Instead of magnetic measurements, the activation energy may be calculated from resistivity measurements realized under magnetic field. This kind of measurement has been made in this work for yttrium doped samples of Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+d (Bi-2212) for different values of applied magnetic field. Samples of Bi₂Sr₂Ca_1-xY_xCu₂O_8+d (x = 0, 0.025, 0.1, 0.25) were prepared by a sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive analysis of X-ray. The measurements of resistivity were made using a classical four probe method and DC current. The magnetic field was applied with a constant amplitude of 0 T, 1 T, 2 T and 3 T. The obtained results show that the activation energy decreases with introduction of yttrium, but has a relative maximum when x is equal 0.1. The decrease of the activation energy is explained by the granular nature of the samples which promotes 3D transition to 2D of the vortex lattice.