High critical current “weld” joints in textured YBa2Cu3Ox

Abstract A technique has been developed to “weld” parts made from textured high T c superconductors of the type RBa 2 Cu 3 O x (R=Y or rare earth element). The weld joint supports a supercurrent comparable to that carried by the joined parts. Welding is accomplished by using the textured parts to seed a spacer material which has a lower decomposition temperature than the material comprising the parts. In this paper, we demonstrate the technique by welding YBa 2 Cu 3 O x parts with a TmBa 2 Cu 3 O x spacer layer. The weld joints were evaluated with SEM, optical and magneto-optical imaging techniques.