Formation of nanostructure in magnesium diboride based materials with high superconducting characteristics

The paper presents an analysis of the properties of bulk superconducting magnesium diboride-based materials obtained by heating at high quasi-hydrostatic pressures (1–2 GPa), hot pressing (30 MPa), spark plasma sintering (16–96 MPa) and loose powder sintering. It is shown that the optimization of impurity distribution in MgB2 can be achieved by varying the synthesis conditions and introducing dopants. In particular, polycrystalline MgB2 materials synthesized at 2 GPa and containing a high amount of impurity oxygen demonstrates high critical current densities (106 and 103 A/cm2 at 20 K in magnetic fields of 1 and 8.5 T, respectively). It is found that the oxygen impurities are mainly localized in nanolayers or nanoinclusions, homogeneously distributed in the matrix. They act as pinning centers, while the MgB2 matrix also contains small amounts of dissolved oxygen. Impurity or intentionally added carbon entering the magnesium diboride structure leads to an increase in the critical magnetic fields up to Bc2 ...