80 research outputs found
An AC susceptometer for the characterization of large, bulk superconducting samples
The main purpose of this work was to design, develop and construct a simple,
low-cost AC susceptometer to measure large, bulk superconducting samples (up to
32 mm in diameter) in the temperature range 78-120 K. The design incorporates a
double heating system that enables a high heating rate (25 K/hour) while
maintaining a small temperature gradient (< 0.2 K) across the sample. The
apparatus can be calibrated precisely using a copper coil connected in series
with the primary coil. The system has been used successfully to measure the
temperature dependence of the AC magnetic properties of entire RE-Ba-Cu-O
[(RE)BCO] bulk superconducting domains. A typical AC susceptibility measurement
run from 78 K to 95 K takes about 2 hours, with excellent temperature
resolution (temperature step ~ 4 mK) around the critical temperature, in
particular.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Measurement Science
and Technolog
- …