Articles you may be interested inDependence of magnetoelectric properties on sintering temperature for nano-SiC-doped MgB2/Fe wires made by combined in situ/ex situ process J. Appl. Phys. 111, 07E135 (2012); 10.1063/1.3677660 Transport properties of superconducting MgB2 composites with carbon-encapsulated Fe nanospheresSpark Plasma Sintering is a promising rapid consolidation technique that allows a better understanding and manipulating of sintering kinetics and therefore makes it possible to obtain MgB 2 -based ceramics with tailored microstructures. Commercial MgB 2 powders were spark plasma sintered with an applied mechanical pressure, leading to MgB 2 pellets with 99% relative density. The obtained samples show a sharp superconducting transition with an onset at 38.5 K. The critical current density was measured equal to 5.6 Â 10 4 A/cm 2 at 20 K under 1 T applied field. Otherwise, the trapped field was also investigated. A 5 mm thick pellet with a 20 mm diameter prepared with optimized processing temperature demonstrated a trapped field of 1.2 T at 15 K and up to 2.5 T at 10 K. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.