J. Phys. Chem. Solids Vol. 52, No. I, pp. 887-893. 1991 OOZZ-3697/91 $3.00 + 0.

00
Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press plc

A NEW MIXED PHASE CERAMIC SUPERCONDUCTOR

BASED ON THE Y-Ba-Cu-0 SYSTEM WITH ADDITION
OF TELLURIUM
W. G. ZENG,~ C. C. LAM,$. P. C. W. FUNG,§ K. W. WONG,~
S. T. TANG,$ C. J. TONGSand Y. Y. Luot
TDepartment of Physics, Zhong Shan University, Guang Zhou, China
IDepartment of Applied Science, City Polytechnic of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
SDepartment of Physics, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
TDepartment of Astronomy and Physics, Kansas University, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.

(Received 10 January 1991; accepted 30 January 1991)

Abstract-We fabricated a new type of superconducting ceramic satisfying the stoichiometric ratio of
YTe,Ba,Cu,O, with x ranging from 0 to 0.8, using compounds CuTeO,, Y,O,, BaCO, and CuO. The
T, (R = 0) values of these superconductors are found to fall in the 89-94 K range. When x = 0.72, the
critical current density J, is found to be enhanced about 7 times compared to that of the YBa,Cu,O, (or
the common YBa,Cu,O,_,) ceramic. The lower and upper limits of J, measured and estimated for the
best sample reach values of 1250Acm-* and over 104Acm-*, respectively. X-ray and SEM analyses
indicate clearly that these new superconductors have crystal structures very much different from that of
the well-known Y-123 specimen. In particular, we found that the nominal YBa,Cu,O, ceramic is made
up of a dominant structure YBa,Cu,O,, _6 plus a small amount of the common 123 phase. The crystal
lattice constants of this 145 new phase are roughly estimated to be: a = .5.240& b = 5.827 A,
c = 11.507 A. When T, is mixed in, the mechanical hardness of the resulting ceramic is much enhanced.
Keywords: High T, ceramics superconductors, tellurium, YBCO superconductors.

1. INTRODUCTION join the ceramics made up of Y-Ba-Cu-0. We must

As an element, tellurium lies on the right side of the
periodic table and is classified as a member of the
VI B group. It demonstrates superconductivity at
T < 5 K only under high pressure or in thin film form
[l]. The electron configuration of Te is Kr4dio5s2p4
and can assume four valence numbers: -2, 2, 4 and
6; the three oxides TeO, TeO, and TeO, are readily
available. While the oxides TeO and TeO, melt at
370°C (in CO*) and 395”C, respectively, the melting
point of TeO, is much higher, namely 733°C. Both
TeO and TeO, are amorphous, but Te02 crystallizes
in either a tetragonal crystal structure with a density
of d = 5.67 x 10’ kg mm3 or a rhombohedral structure
with d = 5.91 x lo3 kg mm3 depending on different
cooling rates. It is interesting to note that according
to crystal symmetry, TeO, has a rather similar crystal
structure to the common YB~,CU,O,_~ (Y-123)
superconducting oxide. The atomic radius of Te is
about 1.42 x lo-” m, which is lower or significantly
lower than that of Y, Ba and Cu. The electro-
negativity of Te on the Pauling convention scale is
2.1, higher than any of Y, Ba or Cu. Therefore, if Te
is present in a polycrystalline structure of Y-123,
it would hardly combine with the oxygen atom in
the Cu-O* plane or Cua chain. Since the oxygen
deficiency 6 in YBa2Cu307_6 cannot be greater than
a certain amount (being found to be at most 0.4), it
would be interesting to investigate whether Te can
emphasize that we do not consider that Te can
substitute for either Y, or Ba or Cu to a great extent,
based on simple atomic and valency analyses. Along
this line we have preheated the usual powders which
would make up the ceramic with nominal com-
position YBa,Cu,O,_, and YBa,Cu,O,, and then
added various amounts of TeO, in each trial. We thus
learned that we could simply add TeO, as an ingredi-
ent and expect to fabricate a new superconductor
with interesting superconducting properties.
Further, we have recently fabricated a new super-
conductor with the stoichiometric ratio YBa,Cu,O,
which is a bulk ceramic superconductor based on the
R-T curve and its Meissner effect observation.
It is thus a natural thought to consider the effects of
addition of Te to this Y-146 ceramic on its super-
conductivity property. Fabrication process (A) in
Section 2 describes this part of our experimentation.
Since oxygen deficiency must exist in the Y-123
ceramic before it can be superconducting, we guess
that such a property still exists in the new Y-146
structure. Any addition, either TeO, or other Te
compounds must be able to release oxygen (and also
to avoid too much oxygen deficiency) to the resulting
ceramic structure after the final stage of the sintering
process. In view of the electronegativity concept, it is
not difficult to see that the compound CuTeO, would
be better than TeO, in ‘fusing’ into the Y-146 ceramic
and be a good oxygen donor to compensate the

887
888 W. G. ZENGet al.

oxygen deficiency required. (In the next section we
shall state other experimental evidence for choosing
CuTeO, .) We therefore introduce fabrication process
(B) in Section 2, using CuTeOg as a compound.
In order to check the consequence of our analysis, we
also fabricated the superconductor YTe, Ba, Cu,O,
for comparison.
We also carried out X-ray diffraction analysis and
SEM observation on typical samples and came up
with the conclusion that YTe,Ba,Cu,O, has a struc-
ture significantly different from those of (mixed
phase) YBa,Cu,O,, and YBazCu,O, _ 6. In this paper
we simply write y to represent the number of oxygen
atoms in the crystals. In fact y should vary from
sample to sample. Further research is needed to
pinpoint the value of y in the future.
In passing, we would also remark that the alloying
members, e.g. rare earth metals [2], ferromagnetic
elements [3], and Pb, Sb [4]. . . , etc. have been
substituted in the two classes of superconductors
Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-0 and Y-123, but Te received very
little attention in the literature either as a dopant or
the main element in superconductors.
2. EXPERIMENTATION
4 h, followed by furnace cooling. The partially crys-
tallized black powder was reground and pressed into
pellets of diameter 15 mm, thickness N l-2 mm with
a hydromatic press using a relatively low pressure of
200 MPa. The pellets were sintered at 950°C for 16 h
in air, then cooled inside the furnace.
(B) The YBa,Cu, _ .O, powder was prepared in the
same manner, using Y,O,, BaCO, and CuO. Powder
(CuTeO,), was then added and the mixture treated as
stated in (A). The stoichiometric ratio at the end was
supposed to be YTe,Ba,CQO,, with x = 0, 0.2, 0.4,
0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 for six typical samples. We have
found that more Te could be added (x = 0.8, 1.0)
if we prepared our samples using the compound
CuTeOj. The reason will be given in the Discussion
section.
(C) A number of samples with the nominal ratio of
YTe,Ba,Cu,O, were fabricated by the preheat and
sintering processes stated in item (A) above; here
x = 0.1, 0.2 and the ceramic ceased to be a supercon-
ductor at 77 K if more Te was added. Thus we have
two types of superconductors: one type has a general
mixed phase composition of 146 plus certain amounts
of Te and the other type has a basic structure of 123
with additional Te.

(i) Fabrication of samples

We may classify our samples into three categories
according to the difference in fabrication procedure
or difference in the types of nominal composition.
(A) Analytical reagent grade powders of Y,03,
TeO,, BaCO, and CuO were mixed and ground in a
predetermined molar ratio of Y : Te : Ba : Cu =
1:x:4:6, where x =O, 0.1, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.6 for
different samples. The resulting mixture for any given
value of x was put in a crucible and fired at 930°C for
(ii) R-T, x--T, SEA4 and X-ray measurements
Using the standard four-probe method we
measured the R-T relation of each sample using a
D.C. current of 1 mA; the sensitivity of the voltmeter
was down to 0.1 pV. The sample was polished to a
thickness of 0.5 mm. If we assume that the current
flows through the whole cross-sectional area of
-0.5 mm*, we could readily convert the R-T data
points to resistivity (p)-temperature curves. Figure 1
shows such p-T curves for four samples belonging to

10,

a-

6-

4-

50 100 150 200 250

Temperature K
Fig. 1. Resistivity-temperature curves for some samples of category A: YBa,Cu,O, (m), YTeO,,Ba,Cu,O,
(@), YTe,,Ba,Cu,O, (a), YTe,,,Ba,Cu,O, (A). The p-Tcurve for the ‘reference’ sample YBa,Cu,O,_,
(0) is also shown.
 Ceramic superconductor based on Y-Ba-Cu-0 system 889

Ot

50 100 150 200 250

Temperature K
Fig. 2. Resistivity-temperature curves for the new samples prepared by the category B fabrication process
(using CuTeO, as one ingredient): YBa,Cu,O, (x), YTe,,,Ba,Cu,O, (*), YTe,,dBa,Cu,O, (a),
YTe,,,Ba,Cu,O, (a), YTe,,Ba,Cu,O, (a), and YTeBa,Cu,O,, (A), note that the last member pertains
to the scale which is contracted by a factor of 256 from the left scale.

category (A) in Section 2, item (i), with x ranging
from 0.0 to 0.4 as specified. For convenience
comparison, the p-T curve for a ‘reference pellet’ of
YBa,Cu,O,_, is also shown. Likewise, six resis-
tivity-temperature curves for samples belonging to
category (B) are indicated in Fig. 2. Samples with the
following stoichiometric ratios were found to have
the p-T curves as given in Fig. 3: YBa,Cu,O,_,,
Y, Tea., Ba, Cu,O, , YTe,, Ba, Cu,O,, . The p-T graph
for the superconductor YTe,,,,Ba,Cu,O, is also
included for convenience of comparison since this
pellet allows a rather high, in fact the maximum,
critical current density in our selection of samples.
in We have also measured the A.C. susceptibility x
using the usual electrical induction coil method. The
T, (R = 0) value for each sample was found to
correspond to the sudden change in x. In Fig. 3 we
show one such typical curve for the sample
YTe,,, Ba, Cu,O, .
We measured the critical current J, at 77 K under
zero magnetic field condition on samples with differ-
ent molar Te contents as specified by x and with
different nominal compositions. In Fig. 4 we plot the
Jc-x variation (right-hand scale) for specimens of

-
‘Oc

4 ’ I ’ I ’ ’ ’ I ’ 150
I I ’ ’ I I I I100 ’ ’ I ’ ’ ’ ’ I I I 200
Temperature K
’J
I ’ / ’ I ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ 250’
Fig. 3. Resistivity-temperature relations for three samples of category C: YBa,Cu,Or_ a,
YTe,, Bar Cu,O, _ 6 (A), YTe,, Ba,Cu,O, _d ( x ). For convenience in comparison, the p-T graph for one
category B sample (YTe,,,,Ba.,Cu,O, with data n) together with its x-T curve (with data 0 using the
right-hand scale) are also shown in the same figure.
 W. G. ZENGet al.

l25OO

,’

0.4 0.6 0.8

Molar Number of Te

Fig. 4. The lower bound of the critical current density and T, (R = 0) are plotted against the nominal
molar ratio x of Te for samples of all three categories. For the YTe,B,Cu,O,_, samples, J, and T, data
are represented by “0” and “O”, respectively. For the category A samples specified by YTe,Ba,Cu,O,,
.I, and T, data are indicated by “A” and “*“, respectively. For the category B samples specified by
YTe,Ba,Cu,O,, J, and T, data are indicated by “ x ” and “o”, respectively.

category (A) (as represented by the A data points) relative intensities of the prominent peaks. Clearly the
and category (B) (as indicated by the x data points). X-ray diffraction patterns are different among them.
The corresponding T,-.x graphs for these two cat- The relative intensity -28 plot is indicated in Fig. 5
egories of samples are also shown in Fig. 4 for for the sample YTe,, 72Ba,Cu,O, .
convenience in analysis. Likewise, the Jc-x graphs Figure 6a shows the morphology of a certain
for samples satisfying YTe,Ba,Cu,O, (category (C), region in sample YTe,,,2Ba,Cu,0,. The kinetic
x = 0, 0.1, 0.2) are plotted in the same figure. energy of the incident electron beam was tuned just
In order to study the structures of these new to knock off the K shell electrons of Te, and a SEM
(mixed phase) superconductors, we carried out X-ray picture was taken. Thus, Fig. 6b shows the distri-
diffraction analysis using Cu-Kcc radiation for four bution of Te in the same region as in Fig. 6a.
samples: (1) YBa,Cu,O,_,; (2) YBa,Cu,O,; (3)
YTeO.,Ba,Cu,O, and (4) YTe,.,Ba,Cu,O,,. Table 1
3. ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
lists the interplanar distances and the corresponding
Using fabrication process (A), we found that the
Y-146 ceramic is a better conductor and exhibits
Table 1. The data of interplanar spacings and relative superconductivity at about 90 K (see Fig. 1). We may
intensities for several X-ray diffraction lines (using Cu-Ku
radiation) take the two samples of Y-123 and Y-146 as the
two reference ones to which Te is added without
YBa,Cu,O,_, YBa,Cu,O,
any reduction in Y or Ba. If x in YTe,Ba,Cu,O,
20 0 d (A) Rel. I 20 0 d(A) Rel. I
(YTe,-146) is greater than 0.1, the resistivity of the
32.952 2.716 100 46.580 1.948 100 sample drops by a noticeable amount. The range of
46.809 1.939 57 32.737 2.733 14
38.786 2.320 44 58.166 1.585 43 x for improving the YTe,-146 specimen as a super-
40.607 2.220 23 22.73 1 3.909 39 conductor is rather narrow. If x is greater than
68.983 1.360 23 68.709 1.365 23 about 0.4, the specimen would have passed through
23.000 3.864 20 87.119 1.118 14 the optimum condition with the superconductivity
59.000 1.564 18 77.561 1.230 13 property much weakened.
YTe,, Ba, Cu,O, YTe, 8Ba Cu,O, Before we proceed to analyze the results obtainable
20 0 d (A) Rel. I 20 0 d (1) Rel. I from adopting fabrication process (B), we must
32.841 2.725 100 32.907 2.720 100 provide some background for the reason of choosing
29.121 3.064 82 46.817 1.939 99 CuTeO, as one of the basic powders in preparing the
38.568 2.333 58 38.711 2.324 80 mixture for preheating and sintering. First, we should
22.893 3.882 51 22.981 3.867 61 note that Te has a relatively high electrical conduc-
58.299 1.581 44 29.990 2.977 48
tivity in group VI B. It reacts with other metals such
51.620 1.769 28 58.415 1.579 33 as Ba, Cu and may form metallic compounds or
68.721 1.365 21 15.346 5.769 18
p-type semiconductors. The Cu-Te compounds may
 Ceramic superconductor based on Y-Ba-Cu-O system 891

25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65

Angle (29 degree)

Fig. 5. The X-ray diffraction pattern for the specimen with nominal composition YTe,,,Ba,Cu,O,,.

result in various forms: e.g. CuTe and Cu,_,Te ductivity is weakened significantly. Moreover, the
(where z is small, see [5]). If there is sufficient oxygen sample would become semiconductor-like when
present, the compound (CuTe)6+0:- may form. x > 1.0. Of course, if x = 1.0, the YTe-146 specimen
However, taking samples of category (A), by means becomes the (Y,,, Te,,,)Ba,Cu,O, specimen.
of X-ray diffraction, we could make sure that the Using the nominal composition YTe, Ba,Cu,O,,
compounds CuTe, Ctr_,Te and CuTeO, do not we indicate in Fig. 3 the p-T relations for three
appear in our resultant ceramic samples. Owing to samples x = 0, 0.1 and 0.2. The three curves show
the uniform distribution of Te in the sample, we clearly that the metallic property is decreasing when
therefore believe that during the (preheating) forming the amount of Te is increased. If x > 0.2, we have
process, compound CuTeO, in particular has dis- found that the sample ceased to be a superconductor
solved as a whole in the final YTe,-146 specimen. at 77 K, as reported [6,7]. For convenience in later
Consequently, we have used CuTeO, as one ingredi- comparisons, the p-T curve corresponding to the
ent powder for the preparation of the samples in stoichiometric ratio YTe,,* Ba, Cu,O, is also included
category (B). From the p-T curves in Fig. 2, we in Fig. 3, together with its a.c. magnetic susceptibility
observe that when a very small amount of Te is plot which substantiates the superconductivity tran-
added, there is an increase in resistivity, with respect sition at about 89 K.
to the Y-146 ceramic. As the content of Te is The dependence of the critical temperature
increased, the conductivity and superconductivity T, (R = 0) on the amount of Te added is shown in
properties are improved. An optimum content Fig. 4 for typical samples (data points *) of category
specified by x - 0.8 occurs, beyond which supercon- (A) and those of category (B) (data points 0). We

Fig. 6. (a) SEM picture of the sample with nominal composition YTe,,,,Ba,Cu,O, ( x 600 times). (b) SEM
picture of the sample in (a), showing the distribution of Te.
892 W. G. &NG et al.
notice that the fluctuation is very small for the range
0 < x < 1.O A small minimum occurs at x z 0.72, but
we have not carried out more refined measurements
for x values around 0.72 to pinpoint the exact
position of this minimum. It is interesting to remark
that a prominent maximum in critical current density
Jp) also occurs at x x 0.72. The accompanying X-T
curve shown in Fig. 3 (i.e. curve associated with 0)
indicates that this sample is not a single-phase one.
Experimentally, it has been shown that another
mixed phase ceramic superconductor which contains
the Y-123 + 211 phases could contribute a higher
Jc PI.
The three sets of curves in Fig. 4 for the three
category (C) samples show clearly again that the
addition of Te to the basic Y-123 structure does not
help its superconductivity.
From the listing in Table 1, clearly the structures
of all the four samples are significantly different. In
particular, we carried out a quantitative analysis of
the crystal structures of the well defined Y-123 sample
and the nominal Y-146 sample. It is interesting to
report that the Y-146 sample consists of two phases,
both of whose crystal structures are orthorhombic.
One phase is simply the well known 123 structure
which makes up about 40% by weight of the sample.
The rest, being -60% by volume, was found to
have the composition of YBa,Cu,O,, _&. The crystal
lattice constants estimated roughly are: a % 5.240 A,
b x 5.827 A and c x 11.507 A. As more Te was intro-
duced by the fabrication method (B), the change in
crystal structure was even more pronounced. We are
led by our result to believe that we have fabricated
a new class of mixed-phase superconductors with
the starting formula of YTe,Ba,Cu,O,. The crystal
structures with Te mixed in are very complex, we
await further analysis to pinpoint the values of the
crystal lattice constants.
Figure 6a shows one of the typical SEM pictures of
the fracture cross-section of a sample satisfying the
YTe,,,2-146 specimen. Figure 6b shows, in particular,
that the distribution of Te inside the crystal grains is
rather uniform.
4. DISCUSSION
(1) It is well known that one can readily fabricate
the single phase Y-123 superconductor, and a small
amount of oxygen deficiency must be present in order
that superconductivity be preserved. It is also well
known that this superconductor is rather unstable in
the presence of moisture and even air. In the first part
of this investigation, we successfully fabricated the
nominal Y-146 superconductor which is made up of
the 145 phase and some 123 phase and we believe that
a small amount of oxygen deficiency also favours
superconductivity. We found that such a mixed phase
superconductor is more stable.
(2) According to our analysis of the XRD data, we
have found a new crystal phase with composition
YBa, Cu,O, , _ 6. Since this phase makes up - 60% by
volume of the bulk sample with nominal 146 compo-
sition, we believe that this 145 structure represents a
new superconducting phase. If the superconductivity
property of the bulk sample is due mainly to the 123
phase (-40%) it is unlikely the specimen would
exhibit such typical high T,, R-T and X-T character-
istics. Here we suggest a stacking model for this new
superconducting structure. We may consider the crys-
tal YBa, CusOl, _ 6, as a stacking of two sequences of
BazCu&L - o.56t separated by a Y atom. To have an
overall valence balance in the crystal unit cell,
6 = 0.5.
(3) As briefly analyzed in Section 1, the electro-
negativity of tellurium is higher than those of Y and
Ba with respect to the electronegativity of oxygen.
Thus the affinity between Y or Ba with oxygen will
be stronger than that of Te with oxygen. However,
copper is only slightly preferable than Te to be
bonded to oxygen. Once a Y-123 or a Y-146 super-
conductor is formed, the Y and Ba atoms are rela-
tively firmly tied to the 123 or 145 unit crystal cell.
Thus once TeO, is ‘joined’ into the Y-123 or mixed
phase Y-146 crystal structure, because of the small
difference in electronegativity between Te and Cu, it
is difficult to form TeO layers, donating oxygen to
the oxygen-deficient Cu-Q plane or Cu-0 chain. It
is therefore not surprising to find from the experimen-
tal analysis that a relatively small amount of TeO,
added to the nominal Y- 146 ceramic would not cause
much change in its superconductivity and would
weaken the superconductivity of Y-123 slightly if
TeO, is mixed in the fabrication process. Based on the
above reason, we have chosen the compound
(CuTe)6+0:- as an ingredient at the mixing pro-
cedure before preheating. We know that if the firing
temperature is high enough, 0 will be released from
CuTeO, to fill some of the oxygen vacancies in the
Cu-0, plane or Cu-0 line. Hence the preheating
temperature is chosen to be about 930°C somewhat
higher than that commonly used for preparing the
Y-123 ceramic at the first stage of firing at 920°C.
Indeed, we have shown that much more Te can
be mixed in the Y-146 structure adopting our fabri-
cation method (B). Moreover, the category (B)
samples are much more stable than those of the
same nominal composition prepared by the more
‘conventional’ fabrication process (A). In fact, we
would like to remark that we have put our category
(B) samples in a humid environment for 48 h and left
them in air for more than 3 months and have found
that their superconductivity properties have not
changed.
(4) Relative to the critical current density J, of the
‘mother’ mixed phase Y-146 specimen, the J, value of
the YTe,,,2Ba,Cu,0, sample is found to increase by
almost one order of magnitude, though T, (R = 0)
has dropped by 3 deg. Moreover, we must emphasize
that all our J, values were calculated with a rather
conservative view: the supercurrent is assumed to
 Ceramic superconductor
pass through the whole cross-sectional area. For a
type II superconductor, it is generally believed that
the penetration depth is a few thousand A [9]. If we
assume that the current passes through an area
bounded by the distance between the two relevant
probes and a penetration depth of even 10,000 A of
the pellet, then the upper bound of J, value should be
at least lo4 Acmm2. At present, we cannot pinpoint an
exact superconductivity theory to explain all types of
ceramic superconductivity. Let us now attempt to
explain such an enhancement of J, from two angles:
theoretical model and crystal structure analysis.
According to the consequence of the bipolaron
theory [lo], the addition of Te would tend to increase
the density of the hole type polarons, because as the
compound CuTeO, joins with other oxides to form
the ceramic YTe,Ba,Cu,O,, extra hole type polarons
will be formed at the location where the stated
bonding occurs. These ‘extra’ polarons, together with
the already existing ones, would help to enhance
the supercurrent. When more CuTeO, is added in,
we expect the density of the bipolarons to be
high enough to smear off the (generalized) Cooper
pairs, thus destroying part of the existing super-
conductivity. Such a consequence may be taken as
one of the possible explanations for the occurrence
of the resistivity tail of the p-T curve and the
property p (7’ = 77 K) # 0 of the specimen specified
by the nominal composition YTeBa,Cu,O, =
(Y,,Te,,,)Ba, Cu,O,, in Fig. 2.
(5) From the viewpoint of ‘crystal combination’,
we may consider the 146 composition to be made
up of the common 123 structure, some surplus
BaCuO, and also some extra CuO. However, from
our X-ray analysis, we could not find a trace of
BaCuO,. This result substantiates our finding of the
new 145 structure. If surplus BaCuOr crystals do
appear, they may work as pinning centers, causing an
increase in J,.
(6) Adding Te with TeO, or CuTeO, to the Y-123
superconductor by the traditional solid state reaction
method does not improve its superconductivity for
the reason already stated. When x = 0.3 in YTe-123,
there is no superconductivity at and above 77 K, but
a hysteresis loop of the R-T curve with a steep drop
of R emerges at _ 127 K.
(7) In passing, we would also note that the
mechanical hardness of our samples of category (B)
is increased significantly once Te is mixed in. A
quantitative description and comparison with that of
other superconductors need to wait for further
measurements of tensile strength and Young’s modu-
lus in the near future.
based on Y-Ba-Cu-0 system 893
5. CONCLUSIONS
We have fabricated a mixed phase new super-
conductor with T, (R = 0) = 92 K, satisfying the
predetermined composition of YBa,Cu,O,. This
superconductor is found to be relatively more stable
than the well-known Y-123 specimen. Based on our
analysis of the electronic structure of tellurium, we
consider that mixing in the oxide of Te to the
Y-BaCu-0 type of superconductors would help in
filling in the oxygen deficient sites if proper pro-
portions of Te oxide and suitable fabrication pro-
cedures are adopted. Due to the small difference in
the affinity power of holding oxygen between Cu and
Te, we have purposely chosen to use the CuTeO,
compound rather than the stable TeO, as an ingredi-
ent before firing. We have found by experimentation,
employing our fabrication process (B), that another
new type of superconductors with nominal molar
ratio of YTe, Ba, Cu,O, can be fabricated quite easily,
with total firing time of only 20 h. The lower and
upper bounds of the critical current density for the
YTe,,,,Ba,Cu,O, ceramic were measured to be
1250 Acmm2 and over 104Acmm2, respectively. Our
X-ray spectra analyses indicate very clearly that the
Y-123, Y-146, YTe,-146 superconductors have differ-
ent crystal structures. We have in fact discovered the
new superconducting phase YBa,Cu,O,, _6 with T,
(R = 0) z 90 K. The findings in this investigation
pose the following interesting questions for further
research: what role does Te play in this new type of
mixed phase YTe, - 146 superconducting ceramics?
How can we fabricate the pure 145 structure?
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