Crystal Size Improvement of Bi-based Superconducting Whiskers under Stress-controlled Condition

Abstract

Using stress-controlled amorphous precursors, we have successfully grown large $Bi_{2}$$Sr_{2}$$Ca_{\textit{n}-1}$$Cu_{\textit{n}}$$O_{\textit{y}}$ (Bi-based) high-transition temperature superconducting whiskers. Especially, under a high compressive stress attained by 1 GPa pelletizing, the crystal size of a whisker was significantly enhanced up to 9.5 mm length (growth period: 96 h) which is 2.4 times larger than that of the conventional amorphous-precursors method. In addition, by using the stress-controlled precursors, the number of the obtained Bi-based whiskers were also increased by a factor of 1.8.