In situ investigation of the phase evolution in Ba-122 wires during thermal treatment via XRD and tomography

The proposed experiment aims to study the evolution of crystalline phases in Ba-122 superconducting wires during the thermal treatments necessary for sintering the superconducting powders. The wires are fabricated through the PIT technique which consists in filling a metallic tube with superconducting powders. Such composite tube then undergoes mechanical processing to obtain a wire (or a tape) and thermal treatments for powder sintering. The specific thermal profile of the annealing induces recrystallization of the phase and grains growth and connectivity but, on the other hand, can lead to the formation of minor secondary phases detrimental to the superconducting properties. For this reason, it is essential to thoroughly study the recrystallization process during the thermal profile to optimize the process in order to maximize the superconducting transport properties and minimize the formation of the undesired phases.