High critical current “weld” joints in textured YBa2Cu3Ox

A technique has been developed to "weld" parts made from textured high T-c superconductors of the type RBa2Cu3Ox (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 YBa2Cu3Ox parts with a TmBa2Cu3Ox spacer layer. The weld joints were evaluated with SEM, optical and magneto-optical imaging techniques. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.