Effects of the scandium/copper substitution on magnetic properties of the YBa2Cu3Oy-Sc2O3 system

Abstract We have investigated the scandium doped YBa 2 Cu 3 O y –Sc 2 O 3 system, which a little attention is paid to at present. The samples were prepared by solid state reaction from stoichiometric mixtures of oxides and BaCO 3 with a nominal composition of YBa 2 (Cu 3− x Sc x )O y . The investigated range of x was from 0 to 1.2. The superconducting phase is manifested up to x  = 1.0. The Sc-doping affects the critical temperature T c and the transition width Δ T c only slightly, unlike the volume magnetization and microstructure. In addition to the superconducting phase, there is main excess nonsuperconducting phase(s) starting from x  = 0.30, which could belong to the family of paramagnetic Ba 3 Cu 3 Sc 4 O 12 phase.