Hot-seeding melt growth of large (Sm-Eu)123 single domains in air with controlled chemical substitutions

Hot-seeding melt growth of large (Sm-Eu)123 single domains has been investigated in air with Nd123 seeds. A homogenization at the partial molten state, which was achieved by annealing at 1100 /spl deg/C for half an hour and at 1070 /spl deg/C for 2 to 4 hours before seeding, was the key to the growth of large single domains with a diameter more than 3 cm. After seeding one sample was grown in a slow cooling at 0.3 /spl deg/C/hour for 120 hours. The other sample was grown with a fast cooling at a rate of 2 /spl deg/C/hour for 15 hours followed by a 0.3 /spl deg/C/hour slow cooling for 100 hours. The measurements of local T/sub c/ and J/sub c/ values over the entire bulks evidenced that a large spatial variation in the superconducting properties was observed in the sample grown with the former thermal schedule, while the latter thermal profile favored the growth of near stoichiometric (Sm/sub x/Eu/sub 1-x/)Ba/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-/spl delta// over the whole processing and thereby significantly enhanced the field trapping capacity.