Browsing by Author "Gupta, Anurag"
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Item Afm, stm and sts studies of grain boundaries And ion-beam induced defects in MGB2(Nova Science Publishers, 2001-06) Narayan, Himanshu; Narlikar, A. V.; Herrmann, P. S. P.; Samanta, S. B.; Gupta, Anurag; Kanjilal, D.; Muranaka, T.; Akimitsu, J.; Vijayaraghavan, R.Item A detailed investigation of surface modification in metallic glasses subjected to 130 MeV 28Si ion irradiation(2002-05) Narayan, Himanshu; Samanta, S. B.; Agrawal, H. M.; Kushwaha, R. P. S.; Gupta, Anurag; Sharma, S. K.; Narlikar, A.V.; Kanjilal, D.Surface modification induced in four metallic glasses by4.64 MeV/u 28Si ion irradiation has been investigated in detail using optical microscopy, SEM and STM. Results obtained in two separate runs have been presented here. The effects of ion fluence (/) and tilt angle (h) on surface modification have been studied both qualitativelyand quantitatively. It has been found that for Se values smaller than that for track formation, swift heavyion irradiation leads to smoothing of the irradiated surfaces. The smoothing is evident from decreasing mean roughness Rq and reduction in height of the hills and filling up of the valleys in the SEM and STM pictures. The observations have been explained on the basis of the theoryof shear flow within the framework of the viscoelastic model.Item Er1−yCayBa2Cu3−x(Fe, Zn)xO7−δ superconductors: a study of microstructure and resistive transitions in a dc magnetic field(IOP Publishing Ltd, 2001-10-15) Chaudhuri, Sukalpa; Gupta, Anurag; Ganesan, V.; Das, I.; Kumar, Anil; Zaleski, A. J; Narayan, Himanshu; Narlikar, A. V.We report an investigation of structure by x-ray diffraction, microstructure by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and broadening of resistive transitions in high dc magnetic fields (0–20 kOe) in Er1−yCayBa2Cu3−x(Fe, Zn)xO7−δ (y = 0.1, 0.2; and 0 x 0.20) ceramic superconductors. The XRD shows that the presence of Ca does not alter the known effect of Fe/Zn substitution on the structure of the pure (y = 0) system. Substitution of both Fe and Zn leads to a decrease in the grain size and micro-hardness. Interesting results were obtained on the influence of various dopants on the broadening of resistive transitions in dc magnetic fields, in general: (1) an increase in Ca content suppresses it; (2) Zn substitution has no effect; and (3) Fe substitution enhances it. We show that these results can be interpreted in terms of a thermally activated flux motion (TAFM), and the effect of various dopants on the properties like pinning barrier and anisotropy.Item Grain boundaries as weak links: The case of MgB2 with reference to YNi2B2C(The American Physical Society, 2002-02-20) Samanta, S. B.; Narayan, Himanshu; Gupta, Anurag; Narlikar, A. V.; Muranaka, T.; Akimitsu, J.The grain boundaries ~GB’s! in the intermetallic superconductor MgB2 , interestingly, do not show suppression of supercurrent density. This unexpected behavior has been investigated by a scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy technique at atomic resolution. The GB in MgB2 is seen as an amorphous region extending from ;50 to 200 Å and has a metallic character. This observation supports proximity coupling between the grains, which explains why supercurrent density does not degrade in this material. The results for another intermetallic superconductor YNi2B2C having GB’s ~average width ;30 Å! that are quasi-insulating in nature have also been presented and compared with the former.Item Phase formation and superconductivity of fe-tube encapsulated and vacuum-annealed MgB2(World Scienti fic Publishing Company, 2006) Singh, K. P.; Awana, V. P. S.; Shahabuddin, M. D.; Husain, M.; Saxena, R. B.; Nigam, Rashmi; Ansari, M. A.; Gupta, Anurag; Narayan, Himanshu; Halder, S. K.; Kishan, H.We report optimization of the synthesis parameters viz. heating temperature (TH), and hold time (thold) for vacuum-annealed (105 Torr) and LN2 (liquid nitrogen) quenched MgB2 compound. These are single-phase compounds crystallizing in the hexagonal struc- ture (space group P6=mmm) at room temperature. Our XRD results indicated that for phase-pure MgB2, the TH for 105 Torr annealed and LN2-quenched samples is 750 C. The right stoichiometry i.e., MgB2 of the compound corresponding to 105 Torr and TH of 750 C is found for the hold time (thold) of 2.30 hours. With varying thold from 1{4 hours at xed TH (750 C) and vacuum (105 Torr), the c-lattice parameter decreases rst and later increases with thold (hours) before a near saturation, while the a-lattice parameter rst increases and later decreases beyond a thold of 2.30 hours. The c=a ratio versus thold plot showed an inverted bell-shaped curve, touching the lowest value of 1.141, which is the reported value for perfect stoichiometry of MgB2. The optimized stoichi- metric MgB2 compound exhibited superconductivity at 39.2 K with a transition width of 0.6 K. In conclusion, the synthesis parameters for phase pure stoichimetric vacuum- annealed MgB2 compound are optimized and are compared with widely-reported Ta tube encapsulated samples.Item A possible correlation between suppression of superconductivity, magnetic ordering and normal state resistivity parameters in the Yb1−xprxba2cu3o7−_ system(World Scienti fic Publishing Company, 2002) Gupta, Anurag; Narayan, Himanshu; Lisboa-Filho, P. N.; Cardoso, C. A.; Moreira, Fernando M. Araujo; De Lima, O. F.; Narlikar, A. V.Polycrystalline samples of the Pr doped Yb1−xPrxBa2Cu3O7− (i.e. Yb(Pr)-123) system for 0 x 1 have been investigated for resistivity and magnetization M as a function of temperature in normal and superconducting states. The gradual decrease in superconducting critical temperature Tc(x) is found to be correlated with the xdependent ratio of resistivity slope (d =dT )cc (corresponding to the linear (T) region) and residual resistivity 0. In particular, the observed di erence of critical Pr concentration where superconductivity is destroyed (xc) in Yb(Pr)-123 (xc 0:65) and Y(Pr)-123 (xc 0:55) matches with the di erence in the value of Pr concentration where the ratio (d =dT )cc= 0 tends to go to zero in them. The M(T) data of the Yb(Pr)-123 samples show magnetic ordering for x > xc at characteristic temperatures, Tn, that increase with x. Interestingly, the Yb(Pr)-123 sample with Pr content (x = 0:6) near xc reveals several anomalous features like transition from metallic to semiconducting-like (T), an excessive broadening of the diamagnetic transition and weakening of the M(T) signal related to antiferromagnetic ordering of Pr ions. These observations can be consistently interpreted by assuming the presence of dynamically fluctuating striped phase in these systems.Item SEM, STM/STS and heavy ion irradiation studies on magnesium diboride superconductor(Elsevier Ltd., 2002) Narayan, Himanshu; Samanta, S. B.; Gupta, Anurag; Narlikar, A. V.; Kishore, R.; Sood, K. N.; Kanjilal, D.; Muranaka, T.; Akimitsu, J.We have presented here the results of SEM and STM/STS investigations carried out on MgB2 superconductor. The SEM pictures show porous surface and well-linked granular structure in which bigger grains (few micrometer size) seem to be agglomeration of smaller, nearly hexagonal grains (size nearly 100 nm). Hexagonal structure of Mg and B layers have been directly observed in atomically resolved STM images. The lattice constants have been determined to be aMg ¼ 3:1 AA, aB ¼ 1:7 AA and c ¼ 3:5 AA. Grain boundaries (GB) of width ranging from 50 to 200 AA have been observed. Absence of weak link effects despite wide GBs has been attributed to the metallic nature of the amorphous region of the GB interior as inferred from STS analysis. Irradiation with 200 MeV 107Ag ions gives tracks of about 65 AA in the bulk of the sample. This is expected to give higher value of critical current density owing to the flux pinning mechanism, which is related to possibility of wide practical application of this material.Item Study of magnetization and pinning mechanisms in MgB2 thin film superconductors: effect of heavy ion irradiation(IOP Publishing Ltd, 2003) Narayan, Himanshu; Gupta, Anurag; Astill, D.; Kanjilal, D.; Ferdeghini, C.; Paranthaman, M.; Narlikar, A. V.We report magnetization studies on MgB2 superconducting thin films in a temperature range 4.2–40 K and magnetic field range 0–6 T. Thin films prepared by both pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and electron beam evaporation (EBE) methods were investigated. In addition, both films were studied before and after heavy ion irradiation by 200 MeV Ag ions with a dose of 1011 ions cm−2. Variation of sweep rates during the measurement of the magnetization loop reveals the presence of flux creep in both films. The PLD film, after irradiation, shows a severe degradation of Tc, critical current densities (Jc) in low fields and irreversibility line (B∗(T )). In contrast, the EBE film shows a slight enhancement in Tc, and nearly no change in Jc(B) and the position of irreversibility line after irradiation. For both pristine films, the obtained volume pinning forces Fp versus reduced field b = B/B∗ shows a good scaling for T 10 K, which matches well with the theoretical curve based on the flux line shear (FLS) pinning model. These and other results can be interpreted in terms of grain boundaries in MgB2 films acting as FLS channels.Item Study of microstructural changes in MgB2 thin film superconductors irradiated with 200 MeV 107Ag ions(IOP Publishing Ltd, 2004-06-18) Narayan, Himanshu; Gupta, Anurag; Narlikar, A. V.; Sood, K. N.; Kishore, R.MgB2 superconductor thin films, prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and electron beam evaporation (EBE), have been investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and after 200 MeV 107Ag ion irradiation. The severe degradation of superconducting properties in irradiated PLD film and the absence of the same in EBE film correlates with the observed changes in their microstructures. The micrographs of the PLD film show an overall smoothing, flow pattern and reduction in size of the bigger agglomerates after irradiation. On the other hand, the microstructure of the EBE film does not show any significant change after irradiation. The flow pattern observed in the PLD film can be understood on the basis of the viscoelastic model for irradiation induced shear flow in amorphous solids. The observed degradation of the PLD film may thus be attributed primarily to its disordered nature under irradiation, whereas the radiation hardness of the EBE film may be due to its higher crystallinity.