Accounting the size distribution of HTS granules for the critical current density from magnetic measurements

Abstract

The determination of the critical current density from magnetic hysteresis loops is widely used to characterize and compare superconducting samples. Magnetic hysteresis loops for tapes and single crystals depend on both the critical current density and sample size. The latter sets the scale of supercurrent circulation. However, in polycrystalline high-temperature superconductors prepared by solid-phase synthesis or by sol-gel method, the magnetization is determined by the circulation of supercurrents in individual grains. The paper discusses the effect of the grain size distribution on the effective scale of current circulation. Log-normal and Weibull distributions are both considered as possible for grain sizes. The effective size for calculating the intragrain current density has been shown to be significantly larger than the average grain size.