Densification of high Tc superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−x by hot isostatic pressing: A novel approach

In this letter a relation is derived between hot isostatic pressing (HIP) temperature, the initial oxygen concentration of sintered Y-Ba-Cu-O powder, the relative density, the oxygen pressure, and the oxygen concentration during HIP densification. The maximum attainable relative density is calculated as a function of HIP pressure. It turns out that degassing oxygen during HIP densification processing has considerable effects on densification maps. Using corrected and modified densification maps a recipe for manufacturing highly dense YBa2Cu3O7-x is presented