In this study, high-density magnesium diboride (MgB2) bulk superconductors were synthesized by spark plasma sintering (SPS) under pressure to improve the field dependence of the critical current density (Jc-B) in MgB2 bulk superconductors. We investigated the relationship between sintering conditions (temperature and time) and Jc-B using two methods, ex situ (sintering MgB2 synthesized powder) and in situ (reaction sintering of Mg and B powder), respectively. As a result, we found that higher density with suppressed particle growth and suppression of the formation of coarse particles of MgB4 and MgO were found to be effective in improving the Jc-B characteristics. In the ex situ method, the degradation of MgB2 due to pyrolysis was more severe at temperatures higher than 850 °C. The sample that underwent SPS treatment for a short time at 850 °C showed higher density and less impurity phase in the bulk, which improved the Jc-B properties. In addition, the in situ method showed very minimal impurity with a corresponding improvement in density and Jc-B characteristics for the sample optimized at 750 °C. Microstructural characterization and flux pinning (fP) analysis revealed the possibility of refined MgO inclusions and MgB4 phase as new pinning centers, which greatly contributed to the Jc-B properties. The contributions of the sintering conditions on fP for both synthesis methods were analyzed.

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Pulsed-field magnetization technique (PFM) is expected as a cheap and an easy way for HTS bulk materials for utilizing as intense magnets. As the generation of heat due to magnetic flux motion in bulk magnets causes serious degradation of captured fields, it is important to investigate the flux motions during PFM in various field applications. The authors precisely measured the magnetic flux motion in the cryocooled MgB2 bulk magnets containing various amount of Ti. We classified the motions to “no flux flow (NFF)”, “fast flux flow (FFF)”, and “flux jump (FJ)” regions. The results showed that addition of Ti shifts the field invasion area to high field areas, and expands the NFF regions. The highest field-trapping appears at the upper end of the NFF region. Since the heat generation and its propagation should attribute to the dissipation of magnetic flux, FFF leads to FJ. Compared with MgB2, we referred to GdBCO as for the flux motion. A flux jump was observed at 30 K when the pulse field of 7 T was applied to the preactivated sample, showing its stability against FJ.

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