Critical current density enhancement in MTG YBCO doped with Y

YBCO bulk superconductor samples have been fabricated and the critical current has been measured and optimized. Providing pinning centers by adding impurity into superconductors is a wellknown solution for increasing the critical current. In this work the superconducting pellets are fabricated using melt texture growth method (MTG at the maximum temperature 1030), and the effect of adding Yttrium dopant is studied. We used Y₂O₃ with different amount of weight percentage as the dopant. SEM characterization reveals that the extra Yttrium penetrate into the YBCO crystal structure and there is no large residual. The results of critical current measurement, indicate that adding 5% wt of yttrium increases the critical current significantly.