Study of CeO/sub 2/+SnO/sub 2/+Ag doped YBCO as a candidate for welding composition

The doping mixture CeO/sub 2/+SnO/sub 2/+Ag has been added to YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-/spl delta//(Y123). The basic idea was to combine the greatly enhanced superconducting properties of CeO/sub 2/+SnO/sub 2/ doped Y123 and the silver faculty to decrease the melting peritectic decomposition temperature of Y123, in order to use this material as a welding material for CeO/sub 2/+SnO/sub 2/ doped Y123 textured blocks. Consequently, different physico-chemical properties of this composition have been studied. It is shown that silver decreases the decomposition temperature of CeO/sub 2/+SnO/sub 2/ doped Y123 from at least 30/spl deg/C and that, for an addition of 5 wt%Ag, the critical current densities under all magnetic fields are totally similar to the CeO/sub 2/+SnO/sub 2/ doped Y123 ones. Hence, this composition appears really promising as a candidate for realizing high quality welds of CeO/sub 2/+SnO/sub 2/ doped Y123 blocks.