Magnetic shielding above 1 T at 20 K with bulk, large grain YBCO tubes made by Buffer-aided Top Seeded Melt Growth.

A superconducting tube can be used as an efficient magnetic shield. The best shielding performance levels are usually achieved when the tube is closed at one or both extremities.
The purpose of the present work is to study experimentally the shielding performance of YBCO tubes obtained by Buffer-aided Top Seeded Melt Growth fabrication process (BA-TSMG). This fabrication process enables the tube to be closed at one extremity by a cap containing the seed and there is no air gap between the cap and the tube.
The shielding effectiveness is characterized by two parameters: (i) the shielding factor, defined as the ratio between the applied magnetic induction and the local magnetic induction measured inside the shield, and (ii) the threshold induction, i.e. the applied magnetic induction above which a given value of the shielding factor cannot be achieved.
The magnetic shielding performances of tubes with different geometry are characterized at 77 K in liquid nitrogen. Further magnetic shielding measurements are carried out on one tube at various temperatures ranging from 20 K to 77 K using a Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS). The tubes are subjected to a quasi-static (“DC”) uniform magnetic field. A Hall probe measures the axial component of the local magnetic induction along the axis of the tube as a function of the applied magnetic induction. In order to investigate how the cap prevents the magnetic flux from penetrating inside the tube, we also characterize open tubes where the cap is removed and compare their properties to those of closed tubes.
Magnetic shielding measurements show that the threshold induction increases by a factor of 9 as temperature decreases from 77 K to 20 K. Measurements also show that the presence of the cap improves the shielding performance at the closed extremity of the order of 1000 as it reduces the penetration through the open end. Near the closed extremity, a threshold induction of 1.5 T was reached at 20 K. To our knowledge this threshold induction is the best value reported so far at 20 K, and is comparable in magnitude to the record threshold inductions reported for bulk MgB2 and Bi-2212 materials at lower temperatures. These results give evidence that efficient magnetic shields can be obtained with this fabrication technique.